Telangana High Court on Monday directed the Registry to send a reminder to film producer and director N. Shankar seeking his appearance before it in a PIL petition challenging allotment of five acres to him by the State government.
The PIL plea filed by an unemployed person, J. Shankar, of Karimnagar came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy. The bench noted that the director did not turn up before it even after a notice was served to him on the matter.
If the director, who was the fifth respondent in the petition, did not appear personally or through a counsel, the HC would proceed ex-parte against him, the bench said in its interim direction. A copy of the day’s order on the matter should be sent to him, the HC said.
The bench said the government and other parties, including the director, should maintain status quo in the case. On June 21, 2019, the State government issued an order, allotting five acres in Mokilla village of Shankarpally mandal in Rangareddy district to Mr. Shankar.
The petitioner said the allotment of land at ₹5 lakh per acre was not justified as the market value was much high. He also stated the land allotment for establishing a film institute was not an appropriate decision by the government and against constitutional provisions.
The land was located closer to Outer Ring Road and had high value in the market. During the previous hearing on January 27, the bench headed by the Chief Justice passed an order to issue notices to Chief Secretary, HMDA, Rangareddy Collector, Chief Commissioner of Land Administration and the film director.