Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court issued directions to the Telangana State Housing Board and the Swarnandhra IJMII Integrated Township Development Company to maintain status quo on a 40-acre parcel of land in Survey No. 1009/1 at Kukatpally in Rangareddy district till further orders. The Housing Board had taken back possession of the land from M/s SITCO IJM (India) Infrastructure Limited on May 4.
A vacation bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghavender Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akhter was dealing with a petition by SITCO which challenged the action of the THB in taking over the property.
The bench found fault with the functioning of the Cabinet sub-committee constituted by the state government in 2016 as it had not taken a final call on the allotment of 40 acres to SITCO for development. Justice Chauhan asked what the sub-committee was doing since 2016. Mr A. Sudarshan Reddy, senior counsel appearing for the private firm, told the court, “After formation of the state, the Telangana state government constituted a Cabinet sub-committee on May 16, 2016 to sort out various issues which arose between the state and IJMII. Pending a final call to be taken by the sub-committee, the Telangana Housing Board intruded into the 40 acres which is in possession of IJMII and dispossessed it.”
Mr A. Sanjeev Kumar, special counsel for the state government, submitted that the disputed 40 acres was allotted to the firm on lease which has expired.
After considering the arguments, the bench ordered status quo and adjourned the matter to June 12.
