TSI BUSINESS PARKS HYDERABAD PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. TELANGANA STATE INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Writ Petition, the petitioners are seeking a Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the 1st respondent herein (TSIIC) in imposing the condition of payment of enhanced lease rentals @ 2% per annum on the lease premium with enhancement @ 5% every year from the date of transfer of shares, vide Condition No.4 in the communication (NOC) dt.12/7/2019 bearing Lr.No.529/PM(IPU)/TSIIC/2006 as illegal, arbitrary and ultra vires and consequently to set aside the Condition No.4 in the communication (NOC) dt.12/7/2019 and to pass such other order or directions as this Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

(2.) Brief facts leading to the filing of the present Writ Petition are that the 1st petitioner is a company engaged in the business of operating, maintaining and leasing of IT Park known as Waverock and is responsible for the administration and setting up of the project. It is submitted that the Government of Andhra Pradesh was desirous of establishing a Financial District near Hyderabad and APIIC was designated as the nodal agency for development of the Financial District. The entire land in Nanakramguda Village, Serilingampally Mandal in Ranga Reddy District, A.P., was earmarked for providing lands for Financial, Banking, Insurance, Stock Market Agencies, Academies and other industrial/financial development and after following due process of law, the land was taken over by the Government of A.P., now Government of Telangana. Petitioner No.1 was formed as a special purpose vehicle and submitted a proposal to the Government of A.P. for allotment of land to set up IT/ITES park of an international standard thereon. The Government of A.P. agreed to the said proposal and allotted approximately 12.13 acres of land situated in Survey Nos.115/5, 115/6, 115/10, 115/11 (part) and 115/34 at Nanakramguda Village, Serilingampally Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, Hyderabad and accordingly an MoU dt.26/7/2006 was executed. Thereafter, APIIC made a provisional allotment of land to petitioner No.1 vide letter dt.28/8/2006 in accordance with the APIIC Industrial Areas Allotment Regulations, 1998.

(3.) The MoU was superseded by an agreement of sale dt.31/10/2006, pursuant to which APIIC had agreed to sell the piece of land to petitioner No.1 for the purposes of developing an industrial park and the consideration for the land was finalized and mentioned in the MoU as well as in the registered agreement for sale dt.31/10/2006 as Rs.4,27,00,500.00 per acre. The conditions imposed in the MoU were that the 1st petitioner shall construct Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/ITES) Towers/Parks of international standards on the said project land with an investment of Rs.125.00 Crores and shall construct a minimum of 1.00 million square feet and shall provide jobs for a minimum of 5,000 people. It was also agreed that the land shall be transferred and conveyed to the 1st petitioner for a consideration of Rs.4,27,00,500.00 per acre totaling to Rs.53,75,99,295.00. Accordingly, a registered agreement of sale dt.31/10/2006 was entered into between APIIC and the 1st petitioner, and the 1st petitioner had paid the entire sale consideration of Rs.53,75,99,295.00 to APIIC. Subsequently, it was decided to enter into a co-development agreement, wherein APIIC was treated as the developer and the 1st petitioner was allowed to take part as a co-developer. Therefore, a co-development agreement dt.10/1/2007 was entered into with the very same conditions of