Telangana HC special bench to hear CS 14 land cases on daily basis

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court will constitute a special bench to hear the most contentious cases involving precious land parcels covered under Civil Suit 7, 13 and 14 of 1958 besides 9/1/1951. The Bench will take up hearing on a daily basis after the Dasara vacation.

These cases gained significance in view of various parties including the state government fighting for ownership of huge extents of land worth thousands of crores of rupees. The cases also turned curious with several judicial orders which were sometimes conflicting with each other being pronounced.

The HC in a recent notice informed of the Special Bench to all advocates, parties in person and litigant public. While CS 14 lands which are located in Hydernagar, Hasmatpet, Malkaram and Hafeezpet originally belonged to Kurshid Jha Paigah, CS 7 lands covering Miyapur and Raidurg belonged to Asman Jha Paigah. The CS 9 lands were of Salar Jung.

The government estimated that the value of CS 14 lands at the market value fixed by it would be `18,265 crore and in the open market they would fetch more than `36,000 crore. While majority land was already encroached and converted into residential colonies, large chunks of land covered under these cases are still vacant in Hydernagar, Miyapur, Malkaram and Raidurg, the value of which is astronomically high.

“The special bench and daily hearing will help resolve all the issues for once and for all,” a senior advocate said adding that the most contentious part would be whether a final decree is passed or not.
Significantly, the Supreme Court in several cases pertaining to Hafeezpet lands had repeatedly pointed out that a final decree has to be passed. While there is no dispute that a preliminary decree was passed in these cases, there were divergent views on the final decree. Most of the original defendants argue that no final decree was passed but third parties who claim ownership through purchase of shares from the original defendants succeeded in obtaining orders in some cases that a final decree was passed.

Goldstone group is a prominent litigant in CS 14 lands and has been accused of creating a maze of court cases for decades. Group director Parthasarathy was once arrested in the Miyapur land case.

The group claims ownership of lands through a compromise decree it entered into with Cyrus Investments. Interestingly the Cyrus group had fought against Goldstone which it said was fraudulently selling their land. After a few years, they joined hands and have been fighting cases against government and other claimants.