Click to play videoLucknow: Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan is asking the Allahabad High Court to strike down a Faizabad district magistrate's order canceling the transfer of land to him in at Daulatpur village in Barabanki district.
He has challenged the decision of the Faizabad additional commissioner to quash the transfer of land in his name.
The petition, which was filed in the registry of the Lucknow bench of the High Court, was likely to come up for hearing on Thursday. In his petition, Bachchan has pleaded that he was not given an opportunity of being heard in the matter by the commissioner's court.
"The Faizabad additional commissioner exceeded his jurisdiction by going into the merits of the case whereas he was only to decide upon a technical point," Bachchan's counsel Gaurav Bhatia was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
Bachchan's counsel says the megastar was not even given an opportunity of being heard before the matter was decided, which was a gross violation of the principles of natural justice.
After hearing the arguments of Bachchan's co-counsel MB Singh, the court had upheld the March 24, 2006 orders of the then Barabanki District Magistrate, Aashish Goyal, quashing the transfer of land by the consolidation officer of Barabanki to Bachchan.
He had also quashed the stay order by the district magistrate, who took over subsequently, and directed the Barabanki district administration to vest the land transferred in Bachchan's name to the gram sabha of Daulatpur.
The orders directed the District Magistrate, Barabanki, to comply with the directions accordingly. On the complaint of some Barabanki villagers that land was transferred in Bachchan's name though he was not a farmer nor a resident of the district, the then district magistrate, Goyal in March 2006 had instituted an inquiry by additional district magistrate Barabanki and declared that the mode of transfer of land was illegal. He had also directed to lodge an FIR in the matter.
The land in question in Daulatpur village under Fatehpur tehsil was entered in the name of Bachchan and was also in his possession. The District Magistrate, RS Sahu, who succeeded Goyal, had later stayed the execution of Goyal's order on the basis of a revision petition filed by Bachchan. The Big B had requested for giving him an opportunity to put up his case for the sake of natural justice,
The DM had also directed maintenance of status quo in April, 2006. Bachchan later filed a revision suit before the commissioner, Faizabad division, under which Barabanki falls, with a prayer to quash Goyal's order on the ground that no opportunity was given to him to present his legal position.
On June 1, the magistrate had upheld an earlier order quashing the transfer of about two acres of agricultural land to Bachchan, on the grounds that he was not a farmer. The proceeding has been termed as illegal and fraudulent.
The actor had received the state-owned farmland from the Mulayam Singh government. Bachchan had used the documents approved by the UP government that certified him as a farmer to buy over 20 acres of agricultural land in Pune district.
(With inputs from PTI)
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