Jharkhand High Court has stayed the auction of 22 acres of land in the Adityapur industrial area which was allotted to a Calcutta-based promoter to develop a City Centre in 2007.

The court’s order came on May 4 following an interlocutory application by Calcutta-based real estate developer Forum Infrastructure Private Limited.

The Forum Infrastructure Private Limited had filed a writ petition in 2021 questioning the jurisdiction of the regional director of Jharkhand Industrial Area Development Authority (JIADA) in terminating the lease order to the firm given in 2008.

“The respondent authorities (JIADA), despite the pendency of the writ petition of 2021 had published a notification on April 17, 2023, inviting bidders to participate in the auction for allotment of the lands at Adityapur Industrial Area and the same was supposed to be completed by May 8 which made us approach the High Court with an interlocutory application to the writ petition,” said Forum Group executive director Nirmal Lunawat.

He even alleged that despite their eagerness to go forward with the project in Adityapur the JIADA authorities did not provide them with mandatory clearances which led to the delay in starting the project.

Estimated to cost around Rs 500 crore, the project envisages a mall, hotel, club, multiplex, a hospital, and office complexes.

“The petitioner (Forum Infrastructure) was allotted approximately 22 acres ofland which has been subdivided into several plots and the auction process has to be held for all the plots in question.

“The petitioner could not start the project on account of the statutory certificate not being granted by theconcerned authority,” states the petition filed by Forum Infrastructure’s legalcounsel.

JIADA legal counsel has argued that a huge chunk of land is vacant and is not being used since 2007 and therefore, steps have been taken for allotting the plots of said land along with some other lands to the successful bidders.

JIADA legal counsel said that its notification indicates that any final allocation shall be subject to the decision of the writ petition of 2021.

“However, in order to prevent the creation of third party rights, the concerned respondents shall not allocate the lands which were initially allocated to the petitioner and subsequently sub-divided to any of the successful bidders till the disposal of the writ petition” the court ruled while listing the next hearing on June 12.