Bhoodan Land Row: Several Officials, Kin File Appeal in Telangana HC
In all the four appeals, the appellants took the same stand, claiming that the land in Survey No. 194 of Nagaram was not Bhoodan land.
Hyderabad: Offended by the interim orders and observations of a single judge on their purchasing Bhoodan land in Nagaram of Maheshwaram mandal, several IPS officers and their family members, the kin of a former IAS officer and a businessman, V. Gowtham Reddy, filed appeals before the Telangana High Court on Tuesday and sought a stay on the orders.
Principal secretary, home, Ravi Gupta, Tarun Joshi, B.K. Rahul Hegde and Renu Goyal, wife of Jitendar Kumar Goyal, all from the IPS, and the son of the former IAS officer B. Janardhan Reddy filed a separate appeal. Another appeal was filed by IPS officers Mahesh Bhagwat, Sowmya Mishra and Swati Lakra jointly. Renu Sharaff, wife of IPS officer Umesh Sharaff, and businessman Gowtham Reddy filed individual appeals against the single judge orders.
In all the four appeals, the appellants took the same stand, claiming that the land in Survey No. 194 of Nagaram was not Bhoodan land. They contended that the single judge had incorrectly came to the conclusion about the land without verifying records.
“The interim orders are nothing but a violation of the principle of natural justice,” the appeals said. “The single judge has not given us an opportunity to defend our case,” they said and contended that the orders were liable to be dismissed in limine (at the outset).
One of the appellants objected to the observations of the single judge regarding fraud. “The single judge ought to have seen that by making observations of fraud at the preliminary stage without hearing the respondents affects the parties’ rights irreversibly and causes grave prejudice,” Rekha Sharaff said in her appeal.
They argued that the Bhoodan land list contained only Survey No. 121 of the village and did not refer to Survey No. 194.
The single judge ought to have seen the malafide intentions of writ petitioner Birla Mallesh, who was raising a title dispute by claiming that his mother owned land in Survey No. 180 of Nagireddypalli. which was sought to be encroached upon by landowners in Survey No. 194 of Nagaram. The single judge failed to see that the mother of the writ petitioner had ratified certain sale deeds executed in favour of the landowners in Survey No. 194 of Nagaram, they said.
On April 24, while hearing Mallesh`s petition complaining about the alleged involvement of civil servants in Bhoodan land transactions. and procuring land in the prohibitory list, the single judge had issued interim orders directing the district collector to mention the land in the prohibited list and ordered not to alienate or transfer or change the character of the disputed land in Nagaram. The single judge also issued notices to the CBI, ED and others.
Aggrieved by the interim orders, the appellant officers contended that the interim orders went beyond the scope of the writ petition and the prayers sought by petitioner Mallesh. They complained that the writ petitioner was agitating a private grievance under the guise of a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. Without considering these , the single judge had issued the orders, the appellants stated.
