Telangana High Court takes up DLF land deal

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the state government and certain real estate companies to respond to a public interest litigation filed against them by Congress MP A. Revanth Reddy who sought a direction to the state government to take back about 31.35 acres of land at Rayadurg in Serilingampally, Ranga Reddy district, from DLF Rayadurg Developers Private Limited.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy on Monday issued notices to the Chief Secretary, principal secretaries of industries and commerce and municipal administration departments, vice-chairman of the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corpor-ation Ltd, DLF Ltd, DLF Rayadurg Developers, Acqua Space Developers, and My Home Constructions represented by its managing director Jupalli Rameshwar Rao. All these officials and respondents have to file their response within four weeks.

Mr Revanth Reddy said that the authorities had acted arbitrarily and illegally in parting with the government land in favour of private entities and allowed them to make huge profits at the cost of the state exchequer. If the land parcel was auctioned in the open market, it would have fetched Rs 2,926 crore for the state exchequer. Mr Revanth Reddy said Acqua Space Developers was a wholly-owned entity of My Home Constructions. “Rather, it is a shell company of My Home Constructions,” the PIL said.

The ultimate beneficiary of the land is My Home Constructions belonging to a person close to ruling party leaders of the state, Mr Revanth Reddy added.

According to the Congress MP, the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh government had allotted about 424 acres of land to set up an integrated IT Park at Rayadurg in favour of Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (subsequently Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation).

Later, a part of this land, or 31.35 acres, was offered by the TSIIC to developers as per the state’s information technology policy. One of the applicants was DLF Limited.

In 2014, Aqua Space Developers made a representation to TSIIC for exchange of land transferred in its favour which was given in the name of DLF.

Mr Revanth Reddy has alleged that the authorities acted in violation of the relevant statutory provisions, rules and regulations to benefit private parties.

The hearing was adjourned for four weeks.