Bachchan moves high court against land order

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan Tuesday moved the Allahabad High Court seeking the quashing of a lower court's verdict cancelling a controversial land allotment to him.

The petition, moved on behalf of Bachchan before the Lucknow bench of the high court, was likely to be taken up on Thursday.

It seeks a review of the June 1 order of the Faizabad additional commissioner, quashing the transfer of three bighas (about 20,000 sq feet) of government land in the name of the superstar.

Bachchan is said to be close to former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his close confidante Amar Singh.

"The additional commissioner took a unilateral decision without giving the party an opportunity to be heard," Bachchan's counsel Gaurav Bhatia told reporters here.

Bhatia said: "The additional commissioner exceeded his brief by going into the merits of the case when he was supposed to deal only with the technical issues brought before him."