Hyderabad: Justice A. Rajasekhar Reddy of the Hyderabad High Court has granted a stay on leasing out the grounds of the Peoples Plaza on Necklace Road to a private company.
While granting an interim order on a petition by L. Bharat Reddy of Handloom Craft Fun Fair of the city, the judge made it clear that Peoples Plaza on Necklace Road can be leased out only through public auction and not by allotment by officers based on circulars.
The petitioner alleged that Hyderabad Metropolitan Development officials working with the Buddha Purnima project allotted the land to a private party against the interests of the exchequer.
He said that despite his application offering Rs 1 lakh as lease per day lying with the officials, they granted the to Maha Utsav Mela of Hyderabad which offered only Rs 51,000 per day.
The standing counsel for HMDA told the court that the special officer of Buddha Purnima project had framed certain guidelines and issued a circular on May 20, 2007 fixing the rent at Rs 51,000 per day.
He said in order to get their applications considered by the officials, the applicants have to deposit 50 per cent of the rent along with their application and the Maha Utsav Mela has fulfilled the conditions of the circular.
The judge said the procedure undertaken by the authorities is against the law as laid down by this court as well as the Supreme Court and stay will not come in the way of the authorities if they want to auction the leasehold rights afresh by calling for fresh tenders.
