Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the Telangana government was adopting the tactics of a land grabber. The SC bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, was dealing with an Interlocutory Application filed by the state government seeking to implead in an ongoing case relating to Hydernagar lands. Referring to another case that came up before the apex court a week ago, the Bench took a serious exception to the government’s attempts to lay hands on lands. The Bench felt that the government seems to have been adopting land grabbing tactics.
It, however, allowed the IA stating that the government had a right to be heard and asked the rival claimants to file replies to the government’s IA and posted the matter to July.
Reacting to the government’s request to allow it to implead in the case, counsels for both the warring parties in the case — Trinity Infraventures and M.S. Murthy — vehemently opposed the government’s claim of ownership on the prime Hydernagar land in Sy No 172.
Counsel brought to the court’s notice that the government had made attempts to claim ownership in several rounds of litigation before the judicial fora including the highest court in the country. Yet they could not succeed, counsel argued.
Meanwhile, the state government in its affidavit made a startling revelation that some of the claimants of the land submitted patta certificates in support of their claims. The pattadars informed the High Court in earlier round of litigation that the certificates were obtained from the State Archives Department.
Maintaining that the certificates are fraudulent, the government informed the SC that a letter from Director, State Archives, on May 11, 2022, clearly established that no such patta certificates or any records with respect to Mohd Yousuf Ali Khan could be traced. “No such documents exist,” said the director of Archives in his letter.
