A judge of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has stayed an order cancelling allocation of land to Amitabh Bachchan in Daulatpur village of Barabanki.
Delivering the order, Mr Justice D P Singh noted that it appeared that the Additional Commissioner of Faizabad who had issued the cancellation order appeared to have acted in undue haste.
The seven-page order reads: “There was no urgency in the matter for the court  to move in a hasty way and decide the controversy at admission stage without considering the statutory provisions. Prima facie it seems to have exceeded its jurisdiction.”
The order further notes: “The concept of the rule of law shall lose its validity if the state is permitted to discharge its function in an unfair and unjust manner... The concept of natural justice is aimed at securing justice... natural justice is the antithesis of arbitrariness.”
In ordering the stay, the court has also accepted Bachchan’s contention that he was not given an opportunity to state his case before the court.
On June 1, a revenue court in Faizabad had ordered cancellation of the allotment of land in Barabanki to the actor on the grounds that records had been forged to carry through the allocation and that the land belonged to the gram sabha, and hence could not be sold.
The case comes up for hearing on July 23.
In the meanwhile, the state government has four weeks to file a counter-affidavit, while Bachchan gets two weeks to file a rejoinder, responding to the questions raised by the court.
While the government has placed the erstwhile Barabanki District Magistrate Ram Shanker Sahu, who allegedly forced the land revenue department to see the deal through, on a waiting list, it is learnt that a final decision on the action to be taken against him will be taken only after the judgment comes through.

Plea for CBI probe
However, Bachchan’s troubles are far from over as a local journalist Jagdish Narain Shukla has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) asking for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the land deal.
Shukla has prayed that since it is a sensitive matter, that pertains to two states (the other being Maharashtra where Bachchan bought farming land after production of a certificate proving his farmer status on basis of the Barabanki plot) and calls into question the role of the former state government, it should be investigated at the highest level.
The PIL comes up for hearing on Monday.