HC Notices to Telangana Goverment on Amendments to Telangana Assigned Lands Act

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the state government to respond to the PIL that challenged amendments to the Telangana Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act 2018.

The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, issued notices to the chief secretary, special chief secretary, secretary (revenue) and chief commissioner (CCLA) directing them to respond to the PIL seeking to set aside the Act No. 12 of 2018 dated April 12, 2018, the Telangana Assigned Lands Prohibition of Transfers Amendment Act 2018.

Through the amendment, the government has extended the cut-off date for reassignment of the assigned lands in favour of the third parties from January 29, 2007 as stipulated under Section 4(1)(b) of the Act to December 31, 2017, which is in clear violation of the principles of natural justice and Telangana Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act 1977.

With the reassignment of the assigned lands to the eligible third party, who have purchased the assigned lands by 31-12-2017, the ownership of such assigned lands will be transferred to the purchaser.

Counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the earlier governments had allotted small parcels of government waste lands/assigned lands to the landless poor w.e.f. November 1969 with an intent that they will eke out their livelihood by farming or taking up other allied ancillary works. But, due to illiteracy, ignorance and social and economic backwardness, the original beneficiaries sold the lands to financially sound people at throwaway prices, whereupon land worth up to Rs one crore was sold for Rs five lakh. The petitioner sought a direction to re-allot the assigned lands to the original allottee by taking possession of the lands from persons, who had purchased the lands from the gullible lot.

The petitioner further submitted that Section 3 of the Telangana Assigned Lands (POT), Act, 1977 prohibits transfer of assigned lands.
While updating land records, it was noticed that nearly two lakh acres of assigned lands was transferred to the third parties. Of that, 74,000 acres of assigned land is the erstwhile Rangareddy district.