By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Under threat of action from the Government, Additional Advocate General SP Mahanta, who is alleged to be involved in a land grab case, resigned from the post on Wednesday night.
This is the second time that the lawyer has lost his post after the matter figured in the Assembly in 2011.
Earlier in March 2011, under pressure from the Opposition during the Assembly session, the Government had asked Mahanta to resign. He was re-instated after a lower court dismissed the case in February 2012.
Deputy Chief Minister in charge Law, Rowell Lyngdoh, on Thursday said that Mahanta resigned on Wednesday night.
Mahanta, who did not want to resign from the post, had met Lyngdoh on Tuesday to explain his position.
However, the Government indicted that action would be taken against the advocate if he did not step down.
The Deputy Chief Minister also said that Mahanta had anticipated that the Government would take action against him which resulted in his resignation.
Lyngdoh said that an Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of the Advocate General of Meghalaya, will select the name of the new Additional Advocate General and the name will be submitted to the Government for consideration.
It was on May 6 that the Court of the Deputy Commissioner (Judicial) B Giri had termed the continued possession of the land measuring 14,285 sq feet at Lower Lachumiere by Mahanta as illegal.
The court was hearing a pending petition of the original owner of the land, Tushar Nath Bhattacharjee, a Non Resident Indian.
The court, by stating that the documents related to the agreement to sell the land to Mahanta was not legally valid, also reversed the earlier order of the trial court of FS Sangma who had dismissed the case in 2012.
The court also said that the appellants (Bhattacharjee and his sisters) ‘were entitled to get back the possessions of the land with the houses’.