Telangana Revenue Department ignored HC diktat on prohibited realty

Hyderabad: The Revenue Department has ignored orders issued by the High Court (HC) regarding notification of prohibited properties, and this has led to land scams in the state.

In December 2015, the HC had directed the Revenue Department, the Endowments Department, and the Wakf Board to prepare a list of prohibited properties and link that list with the online registration system in all sub-registrar offices across the state, so that no one would be able to register properties that belonged to the government.

18 months since the issuance of the orders, the Revenue Department has yet to comply. With no such list in place, land grabbers, in collusion with sub-registrars, have been able to usurp government lands.

The Revenue Department had launched a new portal (mabhoomi.telangana.gov.in) soon after the formation of Telangana state, to keep all land records in the public domain. After the HC issued orders regarding prohibited properties, the department added a “dispute register” link on the website, where the list of prohibited properties and their survey numbers were to have been uploaded; but the link hardly ever opens. The reasoning behind the HC’s order was that it would help keep people informed so that even if land grabbers tried to sell off prohibited properties, buyers would be able to verify whether the lands were under dispute or not, based on their survey numbers.

The HC orders also say that the list of prohibited properties should be displayed at all sub-registrar offices, and their survey numbers should be excluded from the online registration system. But the revenue department’s negligence combined with the state government’s failure to ensure compliance have meant that the orders have so far remained on paper. No one is able to provide any answers as to why the implementation of orders has been delayed.

Md Mahmood Ali, the deputy CM and revenue minister, says, “We had prepared the list of prohibited properties as per HC orders. But some errors were detected in the list. Officials were asked to rectify them, which took time. In some cases, revenue officials had to change the list drastically, citing corrections. This warranted a thorough verification of the list to be carried out again before uploading it.”

In the wake of the Miyapur land scam, which has shaken up the revenue department, officials have initiated the process of preparation of the list of prohibited properties afresh. These properties will be banned from registration on the department’s website.