The Supreme Court on Tuesday, dismissing all civil appeals against Telangana High Court Division Bench’s order upholding allotment of 142.39 acres of land to Greyhounds in Manchirevula village on the outskirts of Hyderabad, declared that the land stands transferred to Greyhounds.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and J.K. Mahswari, pronouncing verdict in a batch of civil appeal pleas, said “there shall be a final quietus of title and possessory dispuote over the land in favour of the State or the agency to whom it has been allotted”. The apex court’s Bench made it clear that no civil court or High Court shall entertain any claim whatsoever on behalf of any assignee their legal representative or General Power of Attorney holder.
The courts shall not entertain any other persons to make direct or indirect claims under any agreement over the land. ‘The land in its entirety is declared to have vested in the State government’, the judgment said. In 1961, the then government of united Andhra Pradesh State gave pattas of 142.39 acres to the landless poor. It was under survey no. 393 in Manchirevula village of Rajendranagar mandal in Ranga Reddy district.
Nearly three decades later, the land assignees gave General Power of Attorney to one M.A. Baksh. In 2005, the government resumed land and allotted it to Greyhounds, a commando force to tackle left wing extremism, for training its commandos and operational base. The assignees moved the High Court. A single judge passed order in their favour in 2010. Following an appeal, a Division Bench of Telangana High Court in 2022 upheld the land allotment to Greyhounds.
Challenging this, appeals were filed in Supreme Court . The SC Bench noted that ‘serious allegations prevailed against the appellants for being involved with the land mafia to usurp the land for private interests’. “The appellants are not entitled to any compensation under the existing constitutional framework”, the judgment said.
The Bench observed that some documents on record do indicated that the “land mafia has already ousted the gullible assignees and now have vulture’s eyes on the land”. The Bench also said a security agency of paramount national importance is currently in possession of the land in public interest.
