HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court gave approval to the state government to take back about 11.5 acres of surplus land worth Rs 500 crore in Survey No.s 74, 75 and 76 of Fathenagar at Balanagar Mandal from two companies, Electrical Meters and Transformers and AP Electrical Equipment Corporation.
A division bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V. Bhasker Reddy pronounced judgment in the appeals filed by the government through the Balapur tahsildar, and set aside the single judge orders which had stopped the revenue authorities from resuming 46,538 square metres (sq.m.) of land on the ground that the Urban Land Ceiling Act was repealed in 2008 whereas the authorities had initiated the procedure in 2010.
The two companies had purchased 1,57,170 sq.m. (around 33 acres and 75 guntas) in Survey No.s 74, 75, 76, 78 and 79 in 1965. After the enactment of the ULC Act 1976, the then AP government issued GO 1729 exempting 57,026 sq.m. from ceiling land proceeding, on the ground that the companies had constructed factory premises. It exempted another 48,859 sq.m. subject to the condition of constructing a separate factory and other buildings.
For the remaining 56,730 sq.m., the respondent was granted an exemption under Section 21 of the ULC Act in view of a scheme formulated for the construction of dwelling houses for the weaker sections. This has to be compiled in five years.
As the company did not fulfil the conditions, the Balapur tahsildar in 2008 conducted a survey and on September 14, 2010, asked it to vacate 46,538 sq.m. in Survey No.s 74, 75 and 76 which were surplus land.
The company moved court and sought direction in 2009 and 2010 before a single judge against the tahsildar intervening in their possession of the property.
It argued that section 3(1)(a) of the Urban Land Ceiling Repeal Act, 2008 provided that no vesting of any vacant land under sub-section (3) of Section 10 of the ULC Act would come into effect unless possession had been taken over by the government. The company said that as possession of the subject land had not been taken over by the government, the proceedings under the ULC Act had abated and the land would remain with it.
The single judge on January 3, 2022, agreed with the company and declared that the proceedings of the tahsildar were void. Challenging the single-judge orders, the government filed appeals.
