VIJAYAWADA: The high court on Wednesday declined to stay the allotment of land to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Visakhapatnam. The court observed that many states are allotting lands to companies at nominal prices in a bid to attract investments and asked the petitioner what was wrong if Andhra Pradesh also followed the same procedure.
However, the high court said that the allotment will be subject to the final outcome of the petition.
Nakka Nammi Grace, Visakhapatnam district president of the Society for Protection of Civil Property and Environmental Rights, moved the high court with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition contending that the govt is allotting land to TCS in contravention of APIIC guidelines.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioner, Jada Sravan Kumar told the high court that the petitioner has no objection to allotting land to TCS, but the govt is giving away 21.16 acres of land worth 529 crore at 0.99 per acre, which is in violation of rules framed under the land allotment policy by APIIC. He said that the state govt is likely to execute registered sale deeds in favour of TCS. Once the sale deeds are executed, the govt will lose its rights over the land and cannot take the land back even if TCS does not make investments and create jobs as promised.
Arguing on behalf of the state govt, special govt pleader S Pranathi said that the land is not being sold to TCS but is being allotted on a lease basis. She sought time to file a counter affidavit with all details.
Considering the arguments on both sides, the high court bench headed by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati observed that extending incentives to the companies investing in the state is not a new practice. As the development of Andhra Pradesh is in the very beginning stages, it is not that important at what price the land is being allotted to a prominent company like TCS, which is investing 1,370 crore and promised to give employment to 12,000 people, said the bench.
The high court further noted that as the state govt is claiming that the land is being given on a lease basis only, it cannot give any interim directions to stay the procedure. Directing the state govt to file a counter affidavit, the high court posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks and clarified that the land allotment will be subject to the final outcome of the petition.
