Hyderabad: Rejecting a plea to restrain HYDRAA, GHMC and revenue officials from taking over seven acres of alleged tank land, the Telangana high court instead directed the petitioner to approach a civil court to prove his title.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao on Jan 9 dismissed the appeal by petitioner A Sudhakar Reddy claiming ownership of land on survey number 563/1 of Bagh Amberpet in Amberpet mandal and said the HC was not the right forum to decide title.
HYDRAA and municipal officials have contended it was tank land.
Sudhakar had cited an unregistered sale agreement of Jan 16, 1986, executed by Syed Azam, now deceased, in his favour. His counsel said Azam’s father had purchased vast land under a sale deed from Pingali Venkatram Reddy, which was dry land and never classified as water body.
Officials in their counter said Sudhakar never filed any document to show his ownership.
HYDRAA counsel K Ravinder Reddy said Sudhakar was only an agreement holder, whereas the man (Azam) claiming title had lost the case in the HC in the past.
“Now, Sudhakar is claiming title as an agreement holder. But this was notified as tank area by irrigation, revenue and municipal officials, which was not challenged,” he said.
Earlier, a single judge too had dismissed Sudhakar’s plea saying he could not show any scrap of paper to prove his title.
The bench in its order said, ” It is trite law that this court cannot determine the disputed questions of facts. It is evident there is a dispute over nature of land and title. It is also not in dispute that a suit has been filed by Sudhakar before a civil court, which is pending. The single judge has rightly declined to entertain the writ petition.”
The bench said if a civil suit is preferred now, then the civil court would decide the issue without getting influenced by the HC order.
