The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has directed that no civil, criminal or revenue proceedings shall be initiated against Amitabh Bachchan in light of the court’s acceptance of Bachchan’s plea to abandon claim over a disputed plot of land in Barabanki.

The order, that spells major relief for the film star, came from a single judge bench of Justice A N Verma. It further directs that the previous order of the Additional Commissioner of Faizadad that Bachchan had no claim over the land and that entries made in his name in the revenue records be removed shall stand.

Bachchan’s purchase of 75,000 sq feet land in Daulatpur village ran into trouble in May this year when a Faizabad Land Revenue court judged that the land had been fraudulently acquired and his possession of the land back dated after tampering with the land records. Bachchan had appealed to the High Court in the matter alleging that the Faizabad court had not given him opportunity for stating his case.

The land, which belonged to the gram sabha had allegedly been handed over to Bachchan on account of his proximity to Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The farmer’s certificate that he then received was used to buy a 24-acre plot in Pune.

Later, as his legal troubles grew, Bachchan, on October 12, declared that he was returning the land to the gram sabha and also donating additional land for construction of a girl’s school. However Mayawati, on whose insistence the land records had been examined had made it clear that the offer of return would not mean an end to the legal issues.

No legal action liable

Hence the court’s pronouncement that Bachchan would no longer be liable for any legal action comes as a major reprieve.

The court also noted that there was no evidence of the records having been tampered with.

Government counsel D K Upadhyay said he would decide the next course of action after studying the judgment.
R N Gupta, lawyer for the Daulatpur Gram Sabha said that his clients were committed to not pursuing any legal action against Bachchan.

“Since we believe there was no malafide intention on Bachchan’s part, the matter shall not be pursued further.”

 “This is a victory of the gram sabha,” he added.