A person can be dispossessed from land only under law: HC to govt

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has directed the government to abide by the law while dispossessing a person of his land. The court was dealing with a petition filed by a batch of farmers from Manne Muthyalamma kunta of Ragannaguda of Old Turkayamjal village, Hayathnagar Mandal.

Farmers from the Rangareddy district had approached the High Court in 2006 complaining that the government was trying to dispossess them from their patta land, after notifying it of a hardware park at Nadergul, Adibatla, and other areas.

The petitioners are covered by Survey No.s 504, 505, 509, 511 to 514, 520 to 523, 528, 529, 530, 531, 532, 533, 534, 535, 536, 540, 542, 558 and 657 to 661 in Manne Muthyalamma kunta. The government treated it as state land without initiating proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act.

The petitioners challenged the notification of the land for a hardware park at Nadergul (dated 10.03.2005) under Section 4(1) of the Act.

Following an inquiry, a declaration was issued under Section 6 (1) of the Act on 16.04.2005.

The validity of the notification and declaration was challenged on the ground that the enquiry report was not handed over to the landowners. Meanwhile, the authorities had tried to attempt to dispossess the petitioner. Challenging the same, the landowners approached the High Court.