HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday questioned the Telangana government as to how it could lease out trust land belonging to Victoria memorial home at Saroornagar area of the city to Rachakonda police commissionerate for constructing its headquarters. It granted time till Dec 28 for producing records pertaining to granting lease of the subject land.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G Shayam Prasad was dealing with a PIL by L Buchi Reddy, president of VM Home Orphan Old Students Association, challenging the decision of the Telangana government to lease 10 acres of land belonging to the home to Rachakonda Police Commissionerate.
The petitioner’s counsel said that the VM Home was established in 73 acres of land by late Nizam VI, Mir Mahaboob Ali Khan Bahadur in the year 1903 with the main objective of educating orphan boys and girls belonging to erstwhile Hyderabad state. He argued that the land belonged to the trust and the government had no power to lease it out.
Refusing to accept the contention of the government counsel that the Endowments department has got power to lease the land and the law was amended recently for that purpose, the bench directed the counsel to produce records by Dec 28 and adjourned the hearing.