The High Court on Wednesday questioned the government’s right to sell its properties under ‘Mission Build Andhra Pradesh’ during its hearing on a PIL filed by Thota Suresh Babu of Guntur against the proposed sale of land in Guntur, Krishna and Visakhapatnam districts. It posted the matter for July 23 (Thursday).
A two-judge Bench of the court comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar and Justice B. Krishna Mohan commented that since the State is perpetual and the government is a temporary one that changes once in five years, the authority with which it mooted the auction of land needed to be examined. They also observed that the government was only a custodian of the said properties.
‘Policy decision’
In his counter-affidavit, Mission Director Pravin Kumar said auctioning government properties and utilising the funds for public purpose is purely a policy decision of the government.
He also submitted that the constitutional courts have been maintaining restraint from interfering with policy decisions.
In the present case, the government has evolved a transparent and fair method of selling land through e-auctioning to fetch the highest price and there is no allegation that the government’s action is mala fide.
Mr. Pravin Kumar claimed that there is no statutory bar on the auctioning of government properties, which is regulated by executive instructions. He asserted that the PIL is liable to be dismissed as it is not the case of the petitioner that the government lacked patent jurisdiction over the sale of land, and that there is no allegation of any irregularity in the auction process.
He informed the court that the Mission Build AP was undertaken to use unutilised and underutilised land parcels for infrastructure creation and a MoU was signed for it with NBCC (India) Limited.
The petitioner’s advocate N. Srinivasa Rao had argued that selling government land to secure funds is tantamount to betraying public confidence and is contrary to law and against the provisions of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution and the Directive Principles of State Policy.