The Telangana High Court on Thursday stayed the sale of five acres of land at Hyderabad Knowledge Centre in Raidurg of Rangareddy district through e-auction held on May 28, by the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited, after hearing contentions in two writ petitions filed by the State Bank of India claiming the land belonged to it and the sale was arbitrary. 

Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar of the HC, while issuing notices to M/s Gaura Ventures Private Limited, the successful bidder in the e-auction for sale of five acres of land, said the stay order against all further proceedings in the matter would be in force for three weeks. The judge instructed the TGIIC to file counter affidavit and the successful bidder to respond to the notice. 

Presenting contentions in the matter, B.S. Prasad, senior counsel, said the e-auction was held on May 28, which was a public holiday on account of Bakrid, reflecting the maligned interest. Narrating the sequences of allotment of the land to the SBI more than 16 years ago by the then Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited, the senior counsel said the bank never had any intention to delay usage of the land. 

Administrative procedures, the pandemic COVID-19 in 2020, the subsequent lockdowns imposed by the governments and issues like unavailability of workers became stumbling blocks in the plans of the bank to erect buildings on the said land, he said. The Additional Advocate General T. Rajinikanth Reddy, appearing for the State, said the SBI failed to make use of the land which was allotted to it nearly 16 years ago. B.S. Prasad countered the contention stating that companies like IKEA, Phoenix, Deloitte and Infosys were given extension of two years’ time in 2021 to make use of the land allotted to them. But the same was declined in the case of SBI, he said. 

Yet, the SBI had already constructed a building to run the bank’s branch and three ATM centres at the allotted land. He informed the bench that SBI had in the past approached the HC over the proceedings issued by the TGIIC cancelling the land allotment. The HC orders had nullified the cancellation of land allotment. In this backdrop, the sale of the said land through e-auction was illegal, arbitrary and against principles of natural justice, the senior counsel argued.