Court defers Bachchan farmland case to Aug 16

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Tuesday deferred the Amitabh Bachchan land scam case to Aug 16. The case relating to the alleged fraudulent allotment of 2.5 bighas (approximately 70,000 sq ft) of agricultural land in Daulatpur village of Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh to Bachchan by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government had come up for hearing before the bench.

However, the counsel arguing on behalf of the Bollywood superstar sought deferment on the plea that they had just received the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the state government.

The affidavit clearly opposed Bachchan's plea about donating the said land to the gram sabha (village assembly).

"When the high court had ordered 'status quo ante', there was no question of altering the status of the land," Additional Advocate General Devendra Upadhyaya told IANS here.

"The stay order applied to both parties, so any declaration by Amitabh Bachchan about giving away the land in philanthropy was violative of the court proceedings," he added.

Earlier, the court had stayed an order of the Faizabad commissioner who had cancelled the allotment, terming the entry of Bachchan's name in Barabanki land records as "forged".

The court granted stay without going into the merits of the case simply on the ground that Bachchan had not been given an opportunity to be heard.

Indo-Asian News Service