SC upholds Telangana’s claim over 550 acres prime land worth Rs 25K crore in Miyapur | Hyderabad News
Hyderabad: In a big win for Telangana govt in a 23-year-old legal battle, Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of appeals filed by private individuals claiming over 550 acres of prime land at Miyapur, upholding the then AP high court’s finding and the decision of the special court for land grabbing cases that the land belongs to the state.According to sources, the land parcel (in survey numbers 100 & 101) in Miyapur abuts the National Highway-65. Incidentally, the Hyderabad Metro Rail depot at Miyapur is part of the land parcel, valued at over Rs 25,000 crore.“We find no perversity in the findings recorded by both the special court and the high court on this aspect,” a Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, said.The court said it saw no reason to invoke equity, describing the matter as “a clear-cut case of attempts being made to grab valuable land vested in the state”. Since the appellants’ own title was lacking, “there was no question of granting equitable relief”, the bench held.Writing the judgments for the bench, Justice Sundresh noted that the land parcels were classified as ‘sarkari poramboke’ after the 1912 survey. Miyapur later formed part of a Paigah jagir restored to one Rafi-un-nisa Begum on the recommendation of the Justice Reilly Commission (which inquired into the settlement of Paigah estates) and confirmed by the 1929 ‘firman (farman)’ by the Nizam.The court, however, held that a jagir was a grant of rights in respect of land revenue, not of title, and that the firman itself restricted sale, mortgage or gift without the Nizam’s sanction.Whatever limited rights existed were extinguished by the AP (Telangana Area) (Abolition of Jagirs) Regulation, in force from Aug 15, 1949, under which jagirs were included in the ‘Diwani’ and the jagirdars’ powers and rights had ceased.The court explained that a jagirdar’s entitlement after abolition was confined to the commutation sum, a one-time payment in the nature of compensation. It added that the exceptions for home farms and personal property under Regulations 17 and 18 apply only if proved, and the burden lies on the person asserting them.The judges found the revenue entries pertaining to the land naming Rafi-un-nisa Begum as pattadar in the 1950s pahanies “bogus and not genuine”, the product of fraud in collusion with revenue officials.They further refused to consider a plea raised by the appellants, for the first time in Supreme Court, that the land was bought at an auction in 1918 and bequeathed to Rafi-un-nisa Begum by will in 1943-44.It said the documents had not passed the tests of admissibility, relevancy and proof, were never mentioned in the Reilly Commission (which inquired into the settlement of Paigah estates and the inter se claims) report or any earlier proceeding, and contradicted a century of public state records. The apex court also found that adverse possession was neither proved nor available.Even assuming the land was settled on their predecessor under the 1929 firman, the court said, it conveyed no title and any interest was extinguished by the Abolition Regulation.As Rafi-un-nisa Begum herself lacked a valid title, she could not have passed it to the appellants. The plea that the land was “Zat Jagir” (personally granted property) was rightly rejected, as it was never raised before the special court and no evidence was led on it.The court further noted that some appellants before it were not parties before the special court or high court.The bench also took note of transfer of some of the land parcels to the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (now HMDA) , but declined to go into the inter se disputes among the claimants.Reacting to the development, the chief minister’s office (CMO) in an official release stated: “A special initiative by chief minister A Revanth Reddy led to the resolution of the Miyapur case pending for 23 years.” The CM directed officials to expedite legal proceedings to protect these highly valuable govt land parcels, it added.BOXGovt records from 1912 listed the land as state property. In the 1920s, the Nizam restored the village to the Paigah family, but only with limited rights. When the Nizam’s old estates were abolished in 1949, the land passed to the state, and the Paigah heirs accepted compensation. Decades later, other claimants surfaced, relying on revenue entries in another heir’s name. In 1997, the special court for land-grabbing cases ruled the land belonged to the state. In 2003, the then Andhra Pradesh high court upheld this, declaring the claimants land grabbers. The private parties challenged high court’s verdict by moving the Supreme Court.
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