Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday found that an essential file regarding the exclusion of 72 acres of prime land in Kongara Kalan village of Rangareddy district from the prohibitory list, and sought an explanation from the government. The court also froze all activity on the land in Survey No. 249 of Kongara Kalan.
Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy of the High Court directed the principal secretary of revenue and the Rangareddy district collector to submit all the details about the deletion of the land from the prohibition list and issuing of pattadar passbooks to private parties.
The judge was dealing with a petition filed by local resident K. Praveen Goud, who complained that the then Rangareddy collector in November 2019 had reportedly issued a letter to delete 72 acres of land from the prohibitory list, out of an extent 1,026 acres and 19 guntas in Survey No. 249, situated at Kongara Kalan. He submitted that the land was notified as a reserve forest and the collector had no authority to de-notify the land.
Based on the collector’s letter of 2019, the Rangareddy collectorate administrative officer, on June 19, 2024, issued a memo for deletion of the land. Following this, pattadar passbooks were issued to private parties and transaction took place on the land.
During the course of hearing, officials told the court that no file was traced out regarding an RTI application filed by Praveen Goud. Even when the court directed the production of all the records, the authorities could not trace it.
It prompted the court to direct the officials to file an explanation on the nature of the land and whether any such memo had emanated from the administration officer or not.
If the memo was issued, the court asked, on what basis had the collector recommended deleting the land from the prohibitory list. If the memo was not issued, how were the pattadar passbooks issued to private parties, Justice Bhaskar Reddy asked.
All these details have to be submitted to the court by the district collector by February 24, Justice Bhaskar Reddy said. The court also directed the revenue authorities to not allow any transaction on the land till further orders.
