Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court refused to declare as invalid, Section 22A of the Registration Act, which restricts registration of certain ‘prohibited’ land. A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar held that a mere possibility of misuse would not invalidate the provision.
The bench was dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the provision. The petitioners included the owners of ‘Devaryamjal land’, (Sree Seetharama Swamy temple land) and land parcels along the Nagpur highway at Bowenpally (Karim Khan Maktha), which were reportedly bought by Pawan Kumar Agarwal of Swapnalok Complex and others.
The land parcels were notified as prohibited by the revenue authorities and the government denied registration. The petitioners argued that they were patta land parcels, and registration was being denied to them without giving them an opportunity to explain.
Senior counsels E. Madanmohan Rao, Hari Haran representing the petitioners argued that the state itself cannot decide its title and that Section 22A amounted to issuing a permanent injunction restraining registration of the documents. They also submitted that no Presidential assent has been granted to the legislation of the Act of 2007 and was therefore void.
Opposing the arguments, Advocate General B.S. Prasad said a full bench of the High Court had already interpreted Section 22A in ‘Vinajmuri Rajagopala Chary’ and the guidelines issued to district collectors for furnishing reasons and description of property prohibited from registration, and for taking adequate care to prevent abuse and misuse of the provision.
The Chief Justice bench observed that the apprehensions expressed by the petitioners were misplaced and did not need countenance.
