In a revelation which may have a bearing on the outcome of Amitabh Bachchan’s legal battle against cancellation of allotment of farmland, the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday alleged that the actor had committed another fraud by giving a wrong home address.
The UP government counsel D K Upadhya made this submission before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court while opposing Mr Bachchan’s petition challenging the cancellation of allotment of farmland in Daulatpur village in Barabanki district.
Justice D P Singh reserved his order on the maintainability of the petition after hearing lengthy arguments made by Mr Upadhya and Mr Bachchan’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi, a senior Supreme Court lawyer. Mr Upadhya submitted that Mr Bachchan was not a resident of “17, Clive Road, Allahabad” as furnished in the petition at the time of the entry of his name in the village revenue records in 1983.
In fact, Mr Bachchan’s father Harivansh Rai Bachchan lived as a tenant at 17, Clive road, Allahabad till 1958 after which the house owner sold the property to a lawyer S S Tewari, he submitted.

Wrong address
“This shows that Mr Bachchan had committed another fraud by showing a wrong address,” he alleged.
The bench has reserved judgment on the maintainability of Bachchan’s petition challenging a Faizabad Court’s cancellation of allotment of land to him in Barabanki.
For two hours Justice DP Singh heard arguments from Rohatgi and Upadhyay. Rohatgi said that his client had not been given ample opportunity to be heard.
Bachchan’s case also rests on the contention that the Revenue court in Faizabad, which cancelled the allotment of the land, was not the competent authority to do so. “Our specific case is that there is no forgery involved”, Rohatgi said.
According to Rohtagi, Faizabad Additional Commissioner V S Prasad had exceeded his jurisdiction by going into the merits of the case whereas he was only to decide upon a technical point.
In response, D K Upadhyaya submitted that a “clear cut fraud” was committed in the transfer of land in Daulatpur village and pleaded for the petition to be dismissed with costs.
He later said, “Those who indulge in fraud cannot be given an opportunity to be heard”.