Telangana HC adjourns PIL on Sada Bainama regularisation to August 26

The Telangana High Court adjourned hearing on a PIL challenging the regularisation of Sada Bainamas to August 26. The government argued that the Telangana Bhu Bharati Act, 2025, now allows processing of over 9 lakh pending land applications

Hyderabad: Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Mohiuddin of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the government’s move to regularise Sada Bainamas and adjourned the matter to August 26.

The PIL, filed in 2020 by Shinde Devidas of Limba (K. Kuntal), Nirmal district, challenges G.O. No. 112 dated October 12, 2020, which allowed the regularisation of such land transactions. At the time, the High Court had issued interim orders restraining the State from processing applications filed after the new Revenue Act came into force on October 29, 2020, observing that regularisation could not be carried out under repealed provisions.

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Appearing for the State, Advocate General A. Sudarshan Reddy urged the bench to vacate the interim orders and dismiss the PIL as infructuous. He submitted that with the enactment of the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Land Rights Record) Act, 2025, the position had substantially changed. Under Section 6 of the new Act, small farmers in possession of land for 12 years before June 2, 2014, are now eligible for regularisation.

He further noted that applicants who had filed between October 12 and November 10, 2020, under the earlier Land Rights and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 1971, were being accommodated under the new regime. Once the stay is lifted, the government plans to process nearly 6.74 lakh pending applications filed after October 29, 2020, in addition to the 2.26 lakh applications received before the cut-off date.

Senior advocate J. Prabhakar, representing the petitioner, sought a week’s time to advance arguments on the new Act and the interim applications and requested that no orders be passed in the meantime. The bench agreed and adjourned the hearing to August 26.