HYDERABAD: Justice Shameem Akhtar of the Telangana High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea filed by the University of Hyderabad (UoH) challenging the decision to lay an approach road through its campus.
The approach road, which has resulted in acquisition of 18.30 acres of the varsity land, connects the Indian School of Business (ISB) to the government employees' colonies in Serilingampally mandal of Rangareddy district.
The land is part of the 2,324 acres allotted by the government of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1975 to establish the university. Senior advocate A Sudershan Reddy, appearing for the UoH, submitted that the land was encroached and the authorities had proposed to lay an approach road on it without taking permission from the university. In 2012, the UoH had opposed the proposal of parting with its land for laying of the road and this was indicated to the current authorities too.
Despite this, the Collector had directed the Tahsildar to hand over physical possession of the land to the GHMC for laying the road. This proposal was dropped after the varsity strongly objected to it. However, the GHMC recently levelled the area despite the land continuing to be vested with the university. "This is not only arbitrary, but also illegal," Sudershan Reddy argued.
Special counsel for the government, Harender Pershad, informed the court that the road has already been laid. He brought to the notice of the court that the writ petition does not disclose any valid grounds to grant any relief.
"The University has no locus to file the present writ petition, since it is neither in possession nor can be considered as an interested party in respect of the subject land, which is now being put to use for the purpose of public movement," Pershad argued.
He contended that as per the revenue records, the land in Sy.no.25 measuring about 2,374 acres, situated in Gachibowli village is government land and classified as 'Kancha Asthabal Poramboke Sarkari'. "In the portion of the said land, i.e., 18.30 acres, which is being claimed by the University, there is an existing road, which is black topped from ISB road to government employees' colonies," he said.
The government constituted a committee of senior officers for inspection of the land for alienation to the university and other educational institutions and to submit a factual report along with its recommendations on utilisation of land and institutional requirements for different educational institutions.
The committee recommended alienation of about 1,626 of 1785 acres in favour of the university and recommended to keep the balance extent in reserve, of which 18.30 acres was allotted to lay an approach road, which necessitated the authorities to black top the existing mud road, and the university cannot have any objection to the same, Pershad said.
After hearing both sides, the court said that, it is settled law that if a petition filed under Article 226 complicates questions of fact that require a regular and full-fledged trial, it is prudent that the court refrains from entertaining such a plea.