The Gujarat government has approved a 978-square-metre plot in Vadodara for cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan, ending a dispute that has lasted more than a decade. The decision comes months after Pathan, a Lok Sabha MP, left the Trinamool Congress for the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, an ally of the BJP.
The land is allotted under the state’s policy for international sportspersons. According to the Gujarat government, 500 square metres will be given free, and the rest will be charged at 55 per cent of its assessed market value. The whole plot is estimated to be worth about Rs 20.50 crore. The decision is not final yet. Hindustan Times reported that the proposal still has to go before the Vadodara Municipal Corporation’s standing committee and general board.
Pathan has been after this land since 2012. It lies next to his house in Tandalja, Vadodara. That year he applied for a 99-year lease, citing security concerns. Two years later, the state government turned down the request because the land had not been offered through a public auction. A proposal from the civic body to sell the land to him was also rejected in 2014.
Pathan went on to build a boundary wall around the plot. In 2024, almost 12 years later, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation described it as an encroachment and ordered it cleared. He moved the Gujarat High Court. Around the same time, he joined the Trinamool Congress.
In his petition, Pathan argued that the matter was more than a decade old and the plot was already in his possession, so the corporation should have given him a chance by issuing a show-cause notice, instead of a notice telling him to “clear the encroachment”. He also argued that since the land belonged to the civic body, and not the state, the state government could not block its sale.
The High Court dismissed his appeal against the corporation’s order the following year. It held that he had no legal right to the land, since no final allotment order had been issued and no payment had been made.
The picture changed this year. In June 2026, soon after the BJP defeated the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, a division bench gave Pathan four weeks to pursue his claim under the state’s sportspersons policy.
On August 13, the Gujarat government directed its Revenue Department to allot land of equivalent value to compensate for the transfer. It also said the decision should not be treated as a precedent for other cases. On August 31, Pathan, who by then had changed his allegiance to the NCPI, withdrew his appeal from the High Court.
