Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan on Tuesday moved the Allahabad High Court challenging the decision of the Faizabad additional commissioner to quash the transfer of land in his name at Daulatpur village in Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh.
The petition, which was filed in the registry of the Lucknow bench of the high court on Tuesday, was likely to come up for hearing on Thursday.
In his petition, Bachchan has pleaded that he was not accorded 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 told PTI in Lucknow.
He said 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.
Additional commissioner (administration) V S Prasad had on June one quashed the transfer of land in the name of Bachchan in 1983 and termed the proceeding as illegal and fraudulent.
After hearing the arguments of Bachchan's counsel M B 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 neither 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 and 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.
District Magistrate R S Sahu, who succeeded Goyal, on the revision petition of Bachchan requesting for giving him an opportunity to put up his case for the sake of natural justice, stayed the execution of Goyal's order and directed for maintaining 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.
