SC Dismisses Review Petition Against Manchirevula Land Valued At Rs 10,000 Crore

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court for the third time rejected claims of private parties over 300 acres of land in survey No. 393 and others in Manchirevula, Rajendranagar mandal, valued at around Rs 10,000 crore. A part of the land was given to the anti-Maoist force Greyhounds in 2006.

The bench, comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice J.K. Maheshwari, dismissed the review petition filed by the private parties, who requested the court to review its orders of August 1, 2023, which declared the land as government property and barred civil courts and High Courts from entertaining any claims over it.

The Supreme Court upheld the judgement of a division bench of the Telangana High Court that went in favour of the government.

Around 45 private persons and general power of attorney (GPA) holders, who contended that the land was allotted to their forefathers in the 1950s by the then government of Hyderabad state and the present government could not take away their rights.

Upholding their contentions, a single judge bench of the then AP High Court on February 5, 2010, declared that the land belonged to the private parties, as their forefathers were in its possession following the 1953v assignment orders.

However, a division bench of the High Court in 2022 dismissed the orders and declared that the land belonged to the government, as a result of which the private claimants knocked on the doors of apex court.

When the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s ruling, the private persons filed this review petition, in which also the apex court did not give them any relief.

The land mafia, according to a case filed by the city police, includes Vessala Group companies, owned by a relative of former police official M. Sivananda Reddy, who contested from the Nandyal Lok Sabha seat on a Telugu Desam ticket in 2019.

Known for his close links with a senior Telangana police official, Reddy’s family issued cheques to the assignees and entered into agreements of sale over the prime land even when the matter was sub-judice.

Defying pressure from higher-ups, the then joint commissioner of police Avinash Mohanty conducted an investigation, searched the premises of Reddy’s family and seized incriminating evidence linking it to the Manchirevula land.

Hyderabad police commissioner K. Srinivas Reddy, who was chief of Greyhounds in 2022 and 2023, and a team of revenue officials, comprising then then Rajendranagar RDO, K. Chandrakala and tahsildar Rajasekhar took special interest in the case and ensured that the land did not go into the hands of private parties.