HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court comprising justices P Sam Koshy and Narsing Rao Nandikonda directed the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Gadwal, to release land acquisition compensation to petitioner Kurva Hanumanthu within three months.
The court said the compensation, withheld despite final adjudication of title in the petitioner’s favour, should be released subject to undertakings that no earlier compensation had been received for the land and that any excess amount found later would be refunded.
Hanumanthu stated that he was the absolute owner of the acquired land and that his title was confirmed by the trial court in 2016 and later by the High Court in July 2024. Though compensation of `8.08 lakh was deposited in 2012 and later the same was increased to `18.22 lakh in the Civil Court Deposit (CCD) account, the amount was not released.
The petitioner argued that the alleged CCD scam took place between 2015 and 2022, whereas his compensation had been deposited in March 2012, much before the scam period. He contended that he could not be denied compensation due to alleged misappropriation by court staff.
The standing counsel for the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Gadwal, said cheque petitions filed before April 1, 2022 were being withheld as a precaution due to discrepancies in CCD records and an ongoing Anti-Corruption Bureau probe.
Observing that the petitioner could not be made a scapegoat for the alleged fraud, the bench held that withholding compensation without any fault on his part was unjustified and violated Article 300A of the Constitution.
The court also directed the ACB to recover misappropriated amounts and deposit them back into the CCD account. It further ordered digitisation of CCD registers, yearly reconciliation of accounts and stronger judicial financial oversight across district courts.