In a setback to Lanco group which was developing Rs 7,200 crore real estate project here, the Andhra Pradesh High Court today refused to entertain a petition over the ownership of land on which the project was coming up saying the matter falls within the jurisdiction of the Wakf tribunal.
A division bench of the High Court comprising justice VVS Rao and Justice R Kanta Rao dismissed the petition filed by Lanco Hills Technology Park, a Lanco group company on the ground that the issue whether a particular piece of land is Wakf land or not, cannot be decided by the High Court as it squarely falls within the jurisdiction of Wakf Tribunal.
Earlier, the Wakf Tribunal had refrained Lanco from selling the apartments being built on the said land following
objection raised by Wakf Board which made Lanco move the high court.
The State Government had sold 1,654.32 acres of land belonging to Dargah Hazrath Hussain Shah Wali in Manikonda
village to many corporates including Microsoft, Emaar Infosys, Wipro and Lanco. But it was not clear whether the court’s observation would impact all the corporates as they did not want to comment saying they were yet to see the court’s order.
Lanco had proposed to build about 30 million sq ft of built up space including residential area, IT towers, malls
and hotels.
When contacted, a spokesperson of Lanco said they were surprised by the court decision and may approach the Supreme
Court.
We are surprised. We will explore all legal options including knocking the doors of Supreme Court,” the Lanco
official said. PTI
