Author and activist Arundhati Roy and her filmmaker husband Pradeep Krishen have again lost the battle to save their bungalow in Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh.
On Thursday, the Hoshangabad-Bhopal divisional commissioner upheld the decision of a lower revenue court, ruling that the purchase of the land for the bungalow at Bariaam village was illegal.
Krishen purchased the plot from Sharif Ahmed in 1992 and completed house by 1993. In 2003, a revenue official cancelled the land title change that had enabled Krishen to build the house.
Divisional commissioner Manoj Shrivastava said the plot was in a notified forest area where only hereditary transfer of ownership was allowed.
The land purchase by Krishen and the construction violated the wildlife protection act and the MP land revenue code, he said.