Rani Mukherjee moves court over Shirdi land

Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee on Friday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the Ahmednagar district collector's order cancelling her ownership of a plot near Shirdi due to irregularities in the deal.

The petition filed before the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court will come up for hearing on April 9.

"There are several discrepancies in the order passed by the district collector and we disagree on several observations made in the order," Rani's lawyer Nanasaheb Chaudhary told PTI.

The sub divisional officer in January this year passed an order to cancel the land sale deal and took possession of Mukherjee's land due to irregularities in the deal.

In December 2005, the actress had paid Rs 33 lakh for the non-transferable land and paid a stamp duty of Rs 1.32 lakh for registration.

The title, however, could not be transferred to her name, as it belonged to a farmer.

According to the order passed by the sub divisional officer, the purchased land was an agricultural land and thus it required special permission from the government to transfer it to a non-farmer.

According to Chaudhary, only the divisional commissioner is empowered to conduct an inquiry under the Land Ceiling revision case.