Mumbai, Sep 29 Spelling a temporary relief of sorts, the Bombay High Court on Friday granted an interim stay till October 6 on the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB)’s order to shut down Baramati Agro Ltd, a firm linked to legislator Rohit R. Pawar, the grand-nephew of Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar.
Rohit Pawar is the CEO of the company, which was slapped with a notice at 2 a.m. on Thursday by the MPCB, ordering it to shut down within 72 hours.
Following the notice, Rohit Pawar challenged it before a bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Manjusha Deshpande, which granted the interim stay on the MPCB order and posted the matter for further hearing on October 6.
The company claimed that it had obtained the requisite permissions and granted environmental clearance in 2022, but the MPCB contended that during a routine inspection, they found certain alleged irregularities, resulting in the closure order.
Slamming the order, Rohit Pawar and other NCP (SP) leaders termed it as “vicious and malafide” and politically-motivated as the MLA remained loyal to the Sharad Pawar-led party after a vertical split in July, with a breakaway faction led by Ajit Pawar joining the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state.
On his part, to a query, Sharad Pawar stuck to his known stance of not commenting on any such "action" by an agency, though his party has backed Rohit Pawar to the hilt in the matter.
Thursday’s plea was filed through Advocate Akshay Shinde, alleging that the MPCB order came “owing to political influence” and intended to pressurise the director Rohit R. Pawar in the current political situation. The Baramati Agro Ltd is into multiple businesses including poultry farm and feed, sugar and ethanol, power, agriculture, fruits and dairy products.
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