Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Thursday will hear two writ petitions filed by the State Bank of India challenging the sale of its five acres of land through e-auction by the State government.

The SBI filed the two petitions by way of lunch motions two days ago seeking direction to set aside the sale of land located at Hyderabad Knowledge Centre in Raidurg of Rangareddy district. The judge directed the registry to list the pleas for Thursday after the Special Government Pleader Rahul Reddy sought time to secure instructions in the matter.

Senior counsels B.S. Prasad and N. Venkatraman appeared for SBI. They contended that in 2010 the then government of the undivided Andhra Pradesh State allotted five acres of land at Raidurg to the State Bank of Hyderabad (which eventually got merged with the SBI) for construction of office and other complex. The SBH paid sale consideration of ₹ 13.33 crore and other fees following which the allotment letter was issued by the then AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited.

An agreement for sale of land with certain terms was executed between the APIIC and the SBH to this extent in 2011. The SBI counsels said a bank branch office building and three ATM centres were built on the said land and further timelines for construction of buildings as per the terms in the agreement were submitted to the government.

However, on January 22, 2021, the government issued proceedings cancelling the allotment of the land. The SBI moved the HC which had set aside the cancellation memo and directed the government to consider the request of the bank and pass appropriate orders. According to the SBI counsels, the cancellation proceedings issued by the government in 2021 ceased to exist in the eyes of the law in the backdrop of the HC order.

In another writ petition filed by the bank, the HC directed the government to consider the request of the bank for initiation of steps for implementation of the project of building office at the site. The government went for an appeal in the matter but the HC affirmed the earlier orders, according to the bank.

Meanwhile, the government issued e-auction notice for sale of the land on this May 6 and the land was sold off, the SBI contended.