Margao: Long before Goa’s liberation, the Salcete Municipal Council decided to grant a plot of land in Pajifond to Clube Bernardo Peres da Silva. At its meeting on June 18, 1940, the council proposed to give the land to the club free of cost and in perpetuity.The grant was subject to a condition that if the society were dissolved or deviated from the purposes for which it was established, the property would revert to the municipality. This condition was incorporated into Decree No. 5568, notified in the Official Gazette, the ‘Boletim Oficial’, on Sept 4, 1952.Seventy-four years after the decree was notified, the condition has become the subject of a dispute before the Goa Lokayukta.Named after a figure in Goa’s colonial history, the club, popularly known as the BPS Club, is now at the centre of a legal challenge over its claim to the property.Senior Congress functionary Savio Coutinho has alleged that the club violated one of the decree’s conditions, triggering the reversion of the land to the municipality. In his complaint, he contended that the property is municipal property under the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968. He also challenged the club’s attempt to have its possession confirmed in proceedings before the Inspector of Survey and Land Records, Margao.Coutinho challenged a ‘no objection’ certificate endorsed by Margao Municipal Council chief officer Madhu Narvekar on June 17, 2026. He argued that an officer acting alone could not deal with a municipal asset governed by the decree. Under Chapter VII of the 1968 Act, he said, municipal property must be governed by a council resolution passed by a majority at a meeting.On Oct 7, Justice (retd) Sandeep K Shinde of the Lokayukta observed that the material before him did not establish that the provisions of the Act had been followed. He ordered that the NOC be kept in abeyance until Nov 3, when club president Yogiraj Kamat has been directed to appear.
