Telangana High Court upholds land allotment to film director Shankar

Telangana government allotment of 5 acres government land at Mokilla Village, Shankarpalli, Ranga Reddy District for a nominal consideration does not warrant any interference, said High Court Bench

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has upheld the allotment of land to Film director N Shankar for setting up a film studio.

The State government allotment of 5 acres government land at Mokilla Village, Shankarpalli, Ranga Reddy District for a nominal consideration does not warrant any interference, said a Bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji.

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J Shankar of Karimnagar challenged the Municipal Administration Urban Development Department allotment order to director Shankar at Rs 5 lakh per acre. It was contended that such allotment was arbitrary. While the actual value of the land was Rs 5 crores it was allotted for Rs 5 lakh showing favouritism, the petitioner’s counsel argued. If the government wanted to develop film industry it should have given equal opportunity to all the interested persons, but the government acted in a discriminative manner in allotting the public land to a person of its choice.

The Advocate General BS Prasad said that there was no basis for the petitioner in arriving at Rs 5 crore per acre in the said area. He argued that there was no irregularity in promoting particular industry. B Raghu Ram, senior counsel representing Director Shankar, argued that the property was registered in the name of the production house and not to an individual. The allotment would enable creating employment opportunities and economical progress. The Bench pointed out that, similar benefits were extended by the State governments to artists and sportspersons for setting up academies. The Bench opined that it’s better to have a policy in place to ensure there is no favouritism and accordingly dismissed the case against the allotment.