Telangana HC to Hear Plea for Probe on Mittal on Bhoodan Land

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court will hear on Tuesday, a criminal revision petition seeking a direction to register a criminal case against senior IAS officer Naveen Mittal and other revenue officials for allegedly permitting illegal transactions in 2023 involving around 50 acres of Bhoodan land in Survey No. 181 and others in Nagaram, Maheshwaram mandal of Rangareddy district, despite subsisting High Court orders prohibiting such activity.

Justice K. Sujana on Monday took up the petition filed by Dastagir Shareef, who had challenged the order passed by the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate, Maheshwaram, dated January 17, 2024. The lower court had dismissed his private complaint which sought criminal proceedings against the officials for alleged violations of law in the transfer and registration of Bhoodan land.

The petitioner alleged that at that time Mittal, in his capacity as custodian of the Bhoodan Yagna Board, and the then mandal revenue officer Md. Mahmood Ali, had allowed transactions and registration of sale deeds over land parcels that were classified as Bhoodan properties and were subject to a status quo order passed by the High Court in 2006.

The complaint cited multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy (Sections 120A and 120B), criminal breach of trust (Sections 405, 406, and 409), disobedience of law by public servants (Sections 166 and 167), and furnishing false information (Sections 177, 181, and 182), among others. It also invoked Sections 81 and 82 of the Registration Act, 1908, concerning false registration and endorsement of documents.

The petitioner contended that despite the land being listed under the prohibited category under Section 22A of the Registration Act and the state government confirming in a 2023 counter affidavit that it was Bhoodan land, the officials facilitated registration and issuance of pattadar passbooks in favour of several private individuals.

Claiming that the magistrate had erred in dismissing the complaint at a pre-investigation stage, Shareef urged the High Court to set aside the lower court’s order and direct the Maheshwaram police to investigate the alleged offences. The matter is scheduled for hearing on October 14.

Plea Against Liquor Policy: HC Issues Notice to State Government

Hyderabad: Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Monday issued notices to the state government in a petition challenging the three provisions of the liquor policy for 2025–27. The petition was filed by Gaddam Anil Kumar, who contested the government’s decision to impose a non-refundable fee of `3 lakh for each application to participate in the tender process for retail liquor shops.

The petitioner requested the court to set aside GO Ms No. 93, and memo dated September 24, 2025, issued by the prohibition and excise department. He argued that the high non-refundable fee was unreasonable and discriminatory, as it restricted the participation of small traders and applicants from marginalised communities. The plea proposed that a nominal non-refundable fee, along with a refundable earnest money deposit (EMD), would be more equitable and consistent with previous policies.

The petitioner said the policy did not offer monetary concessions in application fees, retail shop excise tax (RSET), special retail excise tax (SRET), and shop turnover tax for applicants from the Goud, Scheduled Caste (SC), and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories, even though they were entitled to 15 per cent, 10 per cent, and 5 per cent reservations respectively in shop allotments.

Additionally, he pointed out that the policy did not include provisions for postponing the draw of lots, which were part of the 2023 liquor policy. The court, after hearing the submissions, issued notices to the state government and the commissioner of prohibition and excise department and sought their explanation.