HC nixes bid to mortgage farmer’s land to LDA

Lucknow: A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has recently quashed an order of the Lucknow district administration to record three pieces of land of a Dalit farmer as mortgages in favour of the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA). The land had been mortgaged by developer Ansal API on the basis of an agreement with the petitioner and other landowners in 2019.Passing the order, the bench held that as per the consortium agreement between Ansal API Limited and the petitioner -- a tenure holder -- on Jan 18, 2019, the developer could mortgage the land for the purpose of raising funds from any financial institution or bank. But in the present case, the Ansal API executed the mortgage deed in favour of the LDA for the purpose of development of the land and hence apparently it had exceeded its authority.
A bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi quashed the mortgage deed on a writ petition filed by the tenure holder Bal kesh, challenging the dist administration's order of May 19, 2025 to mortgage the land in favour of the LDA. Allowing the petition, the bench observed, "The terms and conditions of the consortium agreement of Jan 18, 2019, do not authorize Ansal API to mortgage the petitioner's land with LDA. Ansal API has executed the mortgage deed without any authority given by the petitioner. As the petitioner is not a party to the mortgage deed and he had not authorized Ansal API to execute the mortgage deed, the mortgage deed would not affect his rights in respect of the property."Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Dhruv Mathur and Sidharth Harish had pleaded that the mortgage deed was executed as security for performance of the obligations of Ansal API towards LDA as provided under the detailed project report, which did not fall within the preview of raising loans from the financial institutions and banks for the project. "Therefore, the mortgage deed has been executed by Ansal API in favour of LDA without any authority conferred by the petitioner," they added.The petitioner, along with other tenure holders, had executed a consortium agreement with Ansal API on Jan 18, 2019 for developing his pieces of land situated at plot number 87, 88 and some part of 88 Minjumla ( jointly owned) in Sarojini Nagar area. They had also permitted Ansal in the said agreement to mortgage the land to any financial institution and bank.Ansal API, however, executed the mortgage deed of the three pieces of land in favour of LDA and in pursuance to that mortgage deed and ADM (administration ) had directed the SDM, Sarojini Nagar on May 19, 2025 to record an entry of mortgage on the revenue papers.