Big B's case on land allotment postponed

Lucknow, May 28 (UNI) The commissioner's court at Faizabad, ruling on the case related to the alleged irregularities in allotment of a government land at Barabanki to Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, has deferred the hearing till tomorrow.

The hearing was scheduled for today, but the matter could not come up following a strike by local advocates.

The case is likely to be taken up tomorrow.

Earlier, the actor had sought review of an order of the Barabanki district magistrate quashing the allotment citing violation of rules, in the court of the Faizabad divisional commissioner.

The previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government had allotted three bighas (about 70,000 sq ft) of prime land in Barabanki district to Mr Bachchan, a close confidante of the Samajwadi Party leaders.

The district magistrate of Barabanki has alleged that the Bollywood icon had ''misrepresented facts'' to receive the benefit.

Later Mr Bachchan also reportedly used the allotment as a testimonial to establish his credentials as a farmer to buy agricultural land in Pune, Maharashtra, as the state's rules do not permit anyone other than a farmer to purchase such land.

It was a query by the Pune collector in March 2006 to the Barabanki district magistrate for authentication of the Uttar Pradesh testimonial that revealed the irregularities.

Then Barabanki district magistrate Ashish Goel cancelled the allotment on the ground that the land revenue records were fake.

The official was replaced within a few days and his successor Ram Shankar Sahu stayed the cancellation ''till further orders.'' Mr Bachchan then approached the divisional commissioner to get the land restored in his name.

UNI