Pulling up the Maharashatara government, the Bombay High Court today observed that the controversial Adarsh society smacked of "a clear-cut case of manipulation" by its officers in which everybody who was supposed to clear the file was "gifted" a flat.

In scathing remarks, the Court also observed that the state government seemed to have gone "out of way" to please former army chiefs Deepak Kapur and Nirmal Chandar Wij, who were intially not allotted flat because they were not state residents for 15 years, but later got the flats as "exceptional cases".

A Division bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi also asked why the state government had not filed any FIR against the guilty.

The court made the observations while hearing a petition filed by Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society challenging cancellation of occupation certificate and disconnection of water and power supply by the civic authorities.

"You took action against Society, what about the government officers? Why no FIR was registered till now?" the High Court said.

After going through the records pertaining to the society, and to the approval granted to its members in stages, court said: "It is a clear-cut case of manipulation by the collectorate, the state revenue ministry and urban development ministry.

"Everybody who was supposed to clear the file was gifted a flat," the court observed.