Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court took a serious note of the malpractices by Rangareddy district revenue officials in altering names of pattadars of a piece of land at Narsingi in Dharani portal, by deleting the names of the recorded pattadars, despite the subsisting status quo orders issued by the High Court.
The court directed the principal secretary of the revenue department to take disciplinary proceedings against the officials in the said plot and cautioned against sparing anyone found guilty of undermining court orders.
The court also imposed costs of `5 lakh on Industrial Oil Purification pvt. ltd and its authorised signatory for playing fraud to get its name on the land in connivance with revenue officials.
Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy of the Telangana High Court was dealing with a petition filed by Asian Tubes pvt. ltd., represented by its counsel Shatrugan Agarwal, who complained that the revenue authorities had in 2023 deleted his name in the Dharani portal without any notice or intimation to him and entered the names of Industrial Oil Purification over the land admeasuring two acres in Sy.No.340/4/1 situated at Narsingi, Gandipet mandal.
As the litigation erupted over the land, the High Court had issued status quo orders in 2014, which is still in vogue, he said.
Despite the pending cases, the district revenue authorities altered the names in the revenue records by replacing the name of Asian Tubes with Industrial Oil Purification.
After perusing the records and documents, the court came to know that the revenue officials had manoeuvered revenue records in a fraudulent manner and had violated the status quo orders issued by the High Court.
The judge reprimanded the authorities and observed “If such actions are allowed to be continued, the public will lose confidence in the system and the institution”.
The court also said that nay orders passed by the authorities during the operation of the status quo order are null and void and the beneficiaries cannot claim any rights under such invalid orders and officers responsible for issuing such orders shall be subject to disciplinary proceedings for dereliction of duties and undermining the authority of this court. Hence, directions were issued to the principal secretary of revenue to take action against the errant officials immediately. The court also directed the authorities to restore the name of Asian Tubes Pvt. ltd, in revenue records.
