Why was prime land allocated at a throw-away price to private persons? High Court queries government

The High Court Division Bench Headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy heard a Writ Petition through video conference filed by J Shankar from Karimnagar, who was aggrieved by the action of the State government in allocating precious lands located in a prime area of the city to a Film Director N.Shankar at a throw-away price.

The Division Bench directed the State Government to explain the rationale behind the allotment of five acres prime land, located in Manikonda, Shankarpally, worth crores of rupees at Rs. five lakh per acre to a film director and producer N.Shankar for setting up a film institute.

The petitioner's counsel, Sarasani Satyam Reddy, informed the bench that apart from the present litigation, there are other cases too, wherein the State government has very generously allocated precious lands worth crores of rupees to different persons at a less rate and PILs challenging such an action are pending in this High Court and prayed the Court to hear all those PILs and pass an order, protecting State's lands.

After hearing the contents of the petitioner counsel, Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan directed the Registry to tag all those PILs on similar lines together for adjudication.

Moreover, the petitioner counsel requested the bench to add Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration as a party to the PIL, because the GO issued was by the Municipal Administration Principal Secretary allocating the land to the film director.

During the adjudication of the PIL, CJ opined that lands worth crores of rupees the State government is giving it for peanuts, that too for the construction of a film institute.

'What, I understand from this PIL is that this 5 Acre land is right on the ORR, surrounded by so many residential buildings. It is for the State to justify its decision in allocating lands worth crores of rupees at a throwaway price' the CJ said.

The CJ Bench directed the State government to file its response and adjourned the case for two weeks.