India, Nov. 6 -- The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court has restrained the Maharashtra government from allotting confiscated Bhoodan land to anyone till it examines the constitutional validity of Section 25 of the Madhya Pradesh Bhoodan Yagna Act, 1953, which allows land allotted to Bhoodan beneficiaries to vest with the state government if the beneficiaries violate prescribed conditions. The court passed the interim order on a petition filed by Narendra Bais, joint secretary of the Vidarbha Bhoodan Mandal, who claimed that the Section was in contravention of the Act's preamble.

Bais contended that the provision defeated the very purpose of the Bhoodan movement, initiated by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in April 1951 at Pochampally in present...