Telangana High Court refuses to stay proposed sale of 300 acres in Kukatpally

The Telangana High Court declined to stay the proposed sale of nearly 300 acres in Kukatpally but ruled that any sale, construction or development would be subject to the final outcome of the writ petition alleging irregularities in land transactions

By Legal Correspondent

Hyderabad: Justice N V Shravan Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the proposed sale of nearly 300 acres of land in Kukatpally, Medchal-Malkajgiri district, but made it clear that any sale, construction or further development undertaken on the subject land would be subject to the final outcome of the writ petition.

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The direction came in a petition filed by Chintala Srinivas Reddy of Boduppal alleging large-scale irregularities in the sale of hundreds of acres of land in Kukatpally and seeking a high-level probe into the issuance of sale certificates and related transactions.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Pasham Krishna Reddy contended that land originally allotted to GOCL for establishing an industrial park had been converted for residential purposes, divided into plots and sold for villa projects, resulting in a stamp duty loss of about Rs 466 crore to the State exchequer.

He further alleged that lake and forest land had been encroached upon and that the authorities had illegally issued no-objection certificates permitting the conversion of industrial land into non-industrial use.

The petitioner also sought cancellation of sale certificates and sale deeds, besides a direction for an investigation by the Vigilance and Enforcement Department, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Stamps and Registration Department against officials allegedly involved in the transactions.

Senior Counsel D Prakash Reddy, appearing for some of the private respondents, contended that the dispute pertained to transactions dating back to the 1960s and 1970s and that issues relating to title and payment could not be reopened after several decades.

Senior Advocate L Ravichander, appearing for Honor Homes, sought dismissal of the writ petition at the threshold.

Government Pleader Muralidhar Reddy submitted that records dating back several decades would have to be verified and sought time to place the relevant material before the court.

Taking note of the rival submissions, Justice Shravan Kumar directed the State authorities and private respondents, including GOCL Corporation, Hinduja Estates, Squarespace Infra City and Honor Homes, to file their counters within three weeks and adjourned the matter.