Stop Lanco Hills From Selling Property
Contending that the state government had unlawfully handed over prime wakf property at Manikonda village of Ranga Reddy district to Lanco Hills and others, counsel for the State Wakf Board and Dargah Hussain Shah Wali on Monday urged the AP High Court to restrain Lanco Hills from selling its properties to third parties. The Wakf Board contended that Lanco Hills, which was allotted the land for developing an information technology (IT) park, had instead constructed nine residential apartment towers so far on the land, Earlier, the Wakf Tribunal had issued an injunction against the respondents.
The State Wakf Board (SWB) counsel made this plea before a division bench of Justice V V S Rao and Justice Reddy Kantha Rao that is hearing the plea of Lanco Hills seeking vacation of this injunction. The counsel for SWB and the dargah have sought the resolution of the main plea moved by MLC Rehman, MIM legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi and others who want the sale of the wakf lands be declared as illegal. SWB counsel Shafeeq Rahman Mahajir argued that Lanco Hills Technology Park Ltd. was seeking clearance from the HC to sell its structures on wakf land of Manikonda Jagir with a view to taking the dispute away from the legal process. Elaborating his point, Mahajir said when the state government sold the land in Manikonda village belonging to Hazrath Hussain Shah Wali Dargah in 2006, it was acting as a trustee as the SWB had been superseded the previous year. In the writ petition filed by politician Rahman in the HC in 2007 for an injunction on construction on the wakf land, he made the board’s chief executive officer (CEO), a government employee, a party.
However, the court granted permission for the continuation of construction following an affidavit filed by the CEO, Shaikh Madar, that the sale amount should go to the board if it wins the case. The sale of structures, as sought by the Lanco Hills, would create a third party situation and take away property from the reach of legal process under Section 64 of the Trust Act. The section entails that while the property can be taken back from the trustee’s transferee (Lanco), once sold, it cannot be done so when it is in the hands of the purchaser (third party). The counsel for Dargah Hussain Shah Wali, Suresh Kumar, said that the affidavit filed by the board CEO then was invalid as it was not backed by due procedure such as a SWB resolution.
Soli Sorabjee, the senior counsel arguing for Lanco Hills, told the court that the company had purchased the land in an open auction and has been adhering to the agreement they had entered into with the state and APIIC. As per the agreement, the state would compensate the SWB either with alternative land or with compensation if it finally turns out that the land indeed belongs to the Wakf Board, he said. Who will compensate Lanco for the huge money spent on the project, he asked. The counsel for SWB said this was no ground for considering the claims of Lanco as they bought land at a cheaper price and are developing the land in gross violation of laws. The court posted the matter to Tuesday for further hearing.
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