What Action Taken on Naveen Mittal, asks Telangana High Court

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court asked the state government what it had done on the 2017 order to take departmental disciplinary action against high profile IAS official Naveen Mittal.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Tadakamalla Vinod Kumar instructed Advocate General B.S. Prasad to furnish the status report by August 31.

Mittal is currently, principal secretary, revenue, and holds full additional charge as Chief Commissioner of Land Affairs. In 2017, the High Court had ordered action against Mittal for “delinquently issuing” a no-objection certificate (NoC) for 5,262 square yards of land in Nanalnagar, Gudimalkapur, when he was Hyderabad district collector and on the NoC committee.

Along with Mittal, a High Court bench headed by Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao had directed the state government in 2017 to initiate disciplinary action against V. Durga Das, former collector, V.V. Venkat Reddy, former special tahsildar, and P. Madhusudhan Reddy, senior draftsman and one P. Babu Rao for issuing the NoC.

The allegation against Mittal was that he did not consider the note file regarding the disputed land and he did not examine the genuineness of the documents produced by third parties who claimed the land.

The orders were passed in a petition filed in 2011 by Shanti Agarwal of Musheerabad, claiming that she had purchased the Nanalnagar land. She said it was evacuee property and was purchased by one Prem Malhotra in an auction conducted by the managing officer, Regional Settlement Commission, Bombay. The land changed hands and she had purchased from K. Devi and Basanth Devi in 1965.

According to her, in 2009, one Syed Abdul Rub and two others claimed they were the landowners and applied for an NoC to the committee which Mittal headed to obtain GHMC permission to construct sheds. Shanti Agarwal filed objections before the committee, stating that the documents produced by Syed Abdul Rub were fabricated. The joint sub-registrar, Hyderabad, also wrote to the collector on September 3, 2011, stating that the documents of Syed Abdul Rub did not tally with their records.

Ignoring these, the Mittal committee issued the NoC on the name of Syed Abdul Rub. Shanti Agarwal approached the High Court in 2011 and Justice Ramachandra Rao ordered disciplinary action against the officials and imposed a fine of '25,000. The court had directed attachment of the property till the dispute was resolved. Mittal filed an appeal and his petition challenging the disciplinary action against him was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Appeals have been pending since 2017. On Friday, the Chief Justice Aradhe bench heard the petitions. J. Prabhakar, counsel for Shanti Agarwal, said no action had been initiated against Mittal who was now holding the highest post is the revenue department.

Advocate General Prasad submitted that a charge memo was issued to Mittal, and requested time to apprise the status of the disciplinary proceedings.