HC Bench found fault with State for dragging its feet for six years in a land dispute case.
Issue was over Pratap Jungle Resorts Private Ltd’s 20-acre land in Khanapur village in Rangareddy district. State claimed title over this piece of land contending that it was a Govt. land. However, the resort owners claimed they purchased the land in 1998 & that title deed and pattadar passbooks had already been issued to them.
Revenue authorities picked indiscripencies in the title deed & charged the resort owners with manipulating the entry of names in the revenue records through fraudulent means.
Joint collector passed an order to this effect, deleting the names of the resort owners from the revenue records. This order was later quashed by a single judge of the HC in 2008.
HC Bench comprising of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther criticised the State for raising the issue of wrong entries in revenue records after several decades.
Bench pointed out that a division bench had even given the state an opportunity to approach the civil court seeking declaration of title in its favor in 2013 itself. “But, you (Govt) did not do it till 2019. You did it only recently,” the bench added.
