HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court has sought to know why and on what basis the state government had relinquished its claims of ownership on 52 acres in Survey No 63 of Guttala Begumpet, the legal tussles over which has been pending since the 1950s.
The court stayed the recent order of Ranga Reddy district collector Amoy Kumar removing the land from the prohibitory list which facilitated registration of the property in favour of a few private parties. The rival claimants approached the High Court challenging the August 10, 2022, order of the collector asking the commissioner and inspector-general of the stamps and registration department to de-notify from the prohibitory list under Section 22A of the Registration Act 1908.
Hearing the petition, Justice K. Lakshman asked: “On what basis it has been de-notified from the prohibitory list for Registrations. Has the government come to the decision that the land does not belong to it? How have the government officials forgone the claim over the land, which has been pending before the courts since the 1950s,” the judge asked.
Deccan Chronicle had carried areport, “Under cloud firm gets Rs 2,500 cr land” in these columns on September 2, highlighting the government’s decision to give away land to a benami of a reality firm which was recently raided by the income-tax department for alleged largescale illegal financial transactions.
The report also gave details of the company forming a layout on paper and selling plots at exorbitant rate of Rs 2 lakh plus per sq yd even before the ban on registration was removed by the government.
The land was originally declared as ’kancha sarkari’ (government) land and was included in the prohibitory list. In 2018, the High Court while ordering status quo made it clear that any alteration would be considered seriously.
But, Ranga Reddy collector went ahead with his recommendation to de-notify the lands and sought instructions to district registrar, Ranga Reddy, to effect registration of property.
