The Supreme Court said the Andhra Pradesh government “artfully” disguised State largesse to judges, MPs, MLAs, bureaucrats, journalists and “persons of eminence” by allotting 245 acres of public land to them for a pittance in 2005 after declaring them as “deserving sections of the society”.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, in a 64-page judgment, declared the allotment ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘arbitrary’.
Chief Justice Khanna noted that not only were these classes of people allotted land preferentially, but the price of such land was also discounted to the basic rate, instead of the prevalent market rate.
