HYDERABAD: All eyes are on the 500 acres near Shamshabad on the city outskirts, over which the Telangana state government is claiming ownership after declaring it as a reserve forest, while the combine of Goldstone Group and Cyrus Investments wants to lay its hands on the property arguing it to be private land.
The land in Survey No. 173 of Malkaram forms part of the most contentious CS 14 of 1958 land case. Other defendants in the CS 14 accuse the Goldstone group of creating a maze of court cases and denying their due right of at least being heard by the judiciary, leave alone obtaining favourable orders.
Inquiries revealed that a case between Cyrus Investments and Telangana state forest department has been pending for adjudication before a division bench of the High Court presided by the Chief Justice in WP No. 11801 of 2008. In another case, OSA 3/2021, the Cyrus and Goldstone Group company Golconda Estates Pvt Ltd, approached another division bench with a plea to record the compromise reached out between the two parties and award final decree for 410 acres.
The same parties filed Application 297 before a single bench way back in 2011 for recording of compromise. After 12 years they filed another application, this time before the division bench.
According to document available with Deccan Chronicle the Registry of the High Court initially objected to the listing of OSA 3/2021 before the division bench as there was no specific order in Application 297 filed in 2011. The Goldstone Group, however, argued that non-recording of the compromise itself is an order and the same can be appealed. The case was finally listed before the division bench.
Meanwhile, other defendants in CS 14 approached the court with a plea to direct the Goldstone-Cyrus combine to issue notices to all the defendants in accordance with a previous court order in this regard.
The High Court, while dealing with another final decree petition filed by the same parties — Cyrus and Goldstone group — in 2019, ordered that notices should be served to all parties of CS 14 of 1958 as well as third parties making claims before passing final decree “since the prayer of passing Final Decree has large ramifications and may affect persons who are not party to the Compromise”.
The Goldstone-Cyrus combine, however, took a stand that other defendants are not relevant parties and proceeded with its arguments. The case is reserved for judgment.
