HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court has made it clear that the precious land of the State Housing Board cannot be given to individuals for any consideration other than by way of a public auction.
The bench, comprising acting chief justice Dilip B Bhosale and justice AV Sesha Sai, said this on Wednesday while dismissing an appeal made by A Balamani and four others seeking directions to the authorities of the Housing Board to allot them 1,200 square yards of land in the Ameerpet area of the city.
The petitioners' counsel submitted that the state had issued a GO in 2001 directing the board officials to allot this land to the petitioners at Rs 5,000 per square yard as this land was lying adjacent to their houses and there was no access to the outsiders.
Earlier, a single judge had dismissed their plea by pointing out that the petitioners had failed to make use of this GO and failed to pay the amount at that time. Challenging the order of the single judge, the petitioners filed the appeal.
While refusing to direct the board to consider the representations of the individual petitioners, the bench said that in fact the GO issued by the state needed to be set aside as it was given contrary to Rule 29 of the AP Housing Board that does not allow allocations in any other manner than by way of a public auction.
If the state wants to allot this land through non-auction mode then it has to first amend the rule, it added.
While dismissing the appeal, the bench said that in 2006 there were attempts to amend the GO issued in 2001 and it appeared to be a housing fraud.