High court dashes Lanco's SEZ hopes

Infrastructure major Lanco has suffered a setback of sorts, with the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruling that the land being used by the company to build a mega residential-cum-commercial project belongs to the Wakf Board.

Lanco, through its arm Lanco Hills Technology Park Pvt, has been working on developing a residential and IT SEZ in about 108 acres at Manikonda on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

The project is touted to be its flagship real estate project. However, the project, which started in 2003-04, has got embroiled in a series of controversies, with the Wakf Board claiming the ownership of the land. In fact, the board claimed ownership of about 1,600 acres that were taken away by the then government and allotted to various companies, including Microsoft, the Indian School of Business, Polaris, Emaar and Infosys.

Following a prolonged legal battle and an injunction from the Wakf Tribunal, Lanco had decided to petition the high court seeking its direction. On Tuesday, justices VVS Rao and R Kanta Rao of the AP High Court ruled that the land - of about 1,600 acres - including the stretch allotted to Lanco Hills belongs to the Wakf Board. The HC has also asked the petitioners, including Lanco and the state government, to file a remedial petition in the Wakf Tribunal. Lanco’s petition was dismissed by the court with costs.

Reacting to the outcome, a Lanco spokesman said, “We are shocked with the order and we will plan out next course of action after going through the order copy. If required, we will approach the Supreme Court and seek relief.”

On the other hand, the Wakf Board is confident of getting the rights over the alienated land back. “Under Section 51 of the Wakf Act, no one has the power to alienate the land except the Wakf Board. Even the Wakf Tribunal has to look at the board for alienation. We will react appropriately to any moves by Lanco or other parties in the case,” Md Masood Khan, the board’s counsel, told DNA.

All along, Lanco has been claiming that the land was bought in an auction conducted by the then government and it had paid the highest amount in the bid to acquire the same. Lanco had paid about Rs4 crore an acre to get the ownership.

The transaction came in for criticism for being the sole reason for artificially jacking up land prices in the area.

Despite the criticism on the pricing and the mode of land allotment, Lanco went ahead with the project with an outlay of over Rs7,000 crore. The company had also started selling the residential units in the project. However, the Wakf Board controversy has cast a shadow on the completion of the project.