The Hindu : Stay on cricket stadium construction vacated

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 13, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Stay on cricket stadium construction vacated

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 12 . The Supreme Court today cleared the decks for the construction of a world-class cricket stadium by the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) at Uppal in Hyderabad by vacating its stay granted on February 16.

A three-judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice S. H. Kapadia, allowed an application filed by the Secretary of HCA, N. Shivlal Yadav, seeking to vacate the stay granted on a petition by Indian Bank to which a textile firm, Penguin Textile Limited, had mortgaged the land in question.

Appearing for the HCA, senior counsel, Harish Salve, submitted that an agreement had been reached between the Association and the Bank by which about Rs. 2 crores would be paid to the bank without prejudice to the rights of the Association to recover the same from Penguin Textiles.

He said since 60 per cent of the construction had been completed, the Association might be permitted to complete the work before the visit of the Australian team, which would play a match there. The Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, appearing for the bank agreed to the proposal.

The Bench then vacated the stay and allowed further construction. It was made clear that this order would be subject to the outcome of the matter pending in the Court and the rights of all the parties would be protected.

According to the HCA, the Andhra Pradesh Government had allotted 46.87 acres to the firm in 1964. Since the firm breached the conditions of allotment, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation in 1998 resumed 36.87 acres of the land of which 16 acres was given to the HCA.

The company's petition before the High Court challenging the resumption was dismissed and a Bench disposing of an appeal recorded a compromise, whereby the firm agreed to surrender 26.44 acres of the land, and the State Government after due consideration of the HCA's plea for allotment of land allotted 16 acres of it in Uppal.

The Association said it had already spent Rs. 7.50 crores for construction of an ultra-modern international cricket stadium with a capacity of 50,000 spectators. It had entered into various contracts in relation to the construction with several parties and had also made arrangements with financial institutions for loans. The mortgage rights of the bank could be taken care of without touching the 16 acres of land, the Association said and pleaded for vacating the stay.

The Indian Bank had filed a special leave petition against the High Court judgment and even as notice was ordered the Association commenced construction activities. At this juncture, the Bank filed an application seeking stay of the construction.

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