SC dismisses petitions to review quashing of land allotment in Hyderabad

New Delhi, Aug 21 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed petitions for a review of its November 2024 judgment, which quashed allotment of lands to housing societies of MPs, MLAs, IAS officers, journalists and others in Hyderabad.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih dismissed the review petitions, saying no case for review was made out.

The court passed the order after hearing arguments from senior advocates, including CS Vaidyanathan, Anitha Shenoy, Mukul Rohatgi, Siddharth Luthra, Atmaram Nadkarni and others.

The court maintained its stand that there should be no preferential treatment to housing societies of MPs, MLAs, civil servants and journalists for allotment of land within the limits of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

The counsels for the petitioners submitted to the court that the land allotments were made in 2008, and today they have nowhere else to go.

It was also argued that journalists do not constitute a privileged class but have been treated as such at par with MPs, MLAs and IAS officers.

The review petitioners also expressed willingness to pay market rates, as deemed fit by the Court. They also requested that the Court look into each case of a journalist independently to decide if they are privileged.

The bench also told that journalists have salaries ranging between Rs. 8000-30000 and do not have pensionary benefits, the review-petitioners claimed, while MPs, MLAs and IAS officers get pension, gratuity, HRA, and salaries of about Rs. 2.5 lakhs and other benefits.

Highlighting journalists' role as the fourth pillar of democracy, the councils contended that they should be protected so they can safely perform their work.

In November, 2024, a bench of then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta had quashed the Andhra Pradesh Government Memoranda (GoM) of 2005 classifying MPs, MLAs, officers of the AIl India Service/State Government, Judges of the Constitutional Courts, and journalists as a separate class for allotment of land at the basic rate.

The Court also quashed the subsequent GoMs issued in 2008 allotting the lands within the limits of the GHMC to these categories as bad in law, being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

--IANS

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