done: arun
Hyderabad: Expressing shock and dismay at the way the Dharani portal was misused to favour a private entity, Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy of Telangana high court has declared as illegal the mutation of an unconnected person’s name in revenue records as owner of two acres of prime land at Narsingi in Gandipet mandal.
The judge also termed it illegal the subsequent issuance of a pattadar passbook in favour of the individual and slapped costs of Rs 5 lakh on him and his firm for playing fraud on the court.
The judge directed the state govt to conduct a probe into the way the revenue records were tampered with and injustice done to the owner of the plot. Fuming at the conduct of the Rangareddy district revenue officials who went to the extent of violating the status quo order of the high court to favour the individual in an illegal manner and directed them to restore the original names as were existing on March 2014 status quo order.
The judge came across these startling facts while hearing a petition filed by Shatrugan Agarwal of Asian Tubes Private Ltd, who charged the revenue officials with unduly helping Pajjuri Karunakar of Oil Purification Private Ltd.
The land was in the name of Shatrughan as per revenue records. But after the revenue officials connived with Karunakar, the revenue records reflected his and his firm’s name. This was done by citing the order of revenue divisional officer without any notice to the owner of the land.
What shocked the judge was the fact that this RDO’s order was later set aside by an additional collector. Added to this was a restraint order from the high court. Despite all this, revenue officials made wrong entries in the records and issued the pattadar passbook in favour of Karunakar.
“If these unlawful actions go unchecked that will lead to erosion of public faith in the system,” the judge said while allowing the writ petition filed by Shatrugan.
