Civic body need not repay Rs 473cr

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad,Dec 28: The AP High Court on Thursday granted a big relief to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, relieving it of the need to refund Rs 473 crore to the bidders of the Golden Mile Project.

The HMDA had auctioned 70 acres in Kokapet village in July 2006.The auction fetched Rs 703 crore, including a bid of Rs 14.5 crore per acre for a five-acre plot. The bidders paid `435 crore upfront. Many reputed names were involved in the bidding. But, when there was a delay in handing over the property to them, the bidders approached the court, contending that they were not informed that there were writs pending with regard to the land.

K.S.B. Ali and others, who claim to be legal heirs of Nawab Nusrat Jung-I, have been fighting for the land for several years and had filed the writs.

A single judge bench directed HMDA in April 2010 to refund the deposits to the petitioners within three months. If it fails to repay, it will have to pay nine per cent interest per annum from the date of deposit till the date of payment.

HMDA went into appeal. Advocate-General A. Sudarshan Reddy contended that the writ petitions were filed at a subsequent stage and this information was passed on to the petitioners at the time of the auction.

The petitioners participated in the auction, being fully aware of the pending litigation, and they are deemed to have waived the objections, in this regard.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice P.C. Ghose and Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar allowed the writ appeal of HMDA, holding that the writ petitions are not maintainable.