Three months after the Allahabad High Court granted Amitabh Bachchan a reprieve in the alleged fraudulent allotment of Government land in Barabanki, the Mayawati Government on Monday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, seeking quashing of the High Court decision.The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on December 11, 2007 had granted blanket protection to the actor with regard to any kind of proceedings in relation to the land in question.Bachchan was accused of committing “forgery” and “fraud” by getting his name entered in official revenue records as the legitimate allottee of some 2.75 bighas of land (about 70,000 sq ft) at Daulatpur village of Barabanki district, about 40 km from Lucknow.While the entry in the land records of Daulatpur was shown to have been made way back in 1983, state revenue officials later found it to have been forged when Mulayam Singh was in power.Following Faizabad Additional Commissioner Vidya Sagar Prasad’s decision to cancel the allotment of 0.25 hectare of land at Daulatpur village in Barabanki, the actor moved the High Court, pleading a stay.Subsequently, the actor claimed he had donated the land to the Gram Sabha. Following this, the Allahabad High Court directed that no civil or criminal proceedings would be initiated against him in view of the fact that he had abandoned his claims over the land.Assailing this “protection” granted to the actor, the state Government in its appeal has submitted that while directing so, the High Court erred in law as it was not justified considering there was prime facie a case against Bachchan.Terming it illegal and erroneous, the appeal has highlighted how the decision has prevented the state from proceeding against Respondent one (Amitabh Bachchan) “in accordance with the law”.Making the Gram Panchayat, Barabanki, another respondent in the case, the Special Leave Petition (SLP) also states: “The High Court erred in placing reliance on the counsel of the Gram Sabha, which was made without the instructions of the Collector, who acts as the custodian of records.”The SLP has sought information as to whether the High Court was justified in passing an “omnibus order” granting protection to the actor against all sorts of civil, criminal or revenue cases, in relation to the land in question, in accordance with the law. The appeal, based on as many as 13 grounds, also raised a crucial question, as to whether the High Court could allow the actor to withdraw his appeal from the High Court once the facts of manipulation of records came to light.Urging the apex court to grant an ex party stay on the High Court judgment, the appeal has highlighted that the High Court committed a grave error in not appreciating the fact that R-1 (Amitabh Bachchan) was the “ultimate beneficiary of the manipulation of revenue records made in Barabanki and none else”.
