Pay compensation to Ananthagiri Sagar oustees: Telangana High Court to government

The bench passed these orders while allowing the batch petitions filed by several villagers of Kochhaguttapalli, a hamlet of Allipur village in Chinnakodur Mandal of Siddipet district.
Telangana High Court (File Photo | EPS)
Telangana High Court (File Photo | EPS)

HYDERABAD: Taking a serious view of the willful disobedience of court orders and for forcible eviction of the petitioners from their houses and agricultural lands situated in Kochhaguttapalli village in Siddipet district, which were acquired for Ananthagiri Sagar reservoir under Kaleshwaram project, a division bench of Telangana High Court on Friday declared the sale deeds executed by the petitioners selling their agricultural lands to the State as null and void.

The bench, comprising Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice K Lakshman, observed: “In the present cases, the petitioners were given no choice or rather no meaningful choice, in view of their unequal bargaining power with the respondent authorities, but to give their assent to a contract or to sign on the dotted line in a prescribed or standard form though it was unfair, unreasonable and unconscionable.”

“The authorities concerned have violated the earlier order of the court and forced the petitioners to give up their lands by signing agreements or sale deeds under coercion and threat, and so the said sale deeds executed by petitioners selling their agricultural lands to the State are declared null and void, as they are unconscionable and we hold that they are unenforceable in view of Section 19 and 23 of the Contract Act, 1872,” the bench added.

“We also hold that the action of the authorities is violative of Article 14 and 300-A of the Constitution of India. We also hold that there has been arbitrary fixation of price of the lands of the petitioners,”, the bench observed and directed the authorities to determine and pay compensation to the petitioners as per the Land
Acquisition Act, 2013 for deprivation of their houses, structure and trees within next three months,” the bench observed.

Orders adverse entry in annual report of Collector
The bench also directed the State Chief Secretary to record an adverse entry in the annual confidential reports of Siddipet Collector P Venkatrama Reddy, RDO K AnanthaReddy, MROs Srinivas Rao and Parameswar and Siddipet Commissioner of Police Joel Davis, who had taken an active part in forcibly evicting the petitioners from their houses on April 19. Besides, the bench also directed the Principal Secretary to Irrigation to pay costs of `5,000 to each petitioner.

The bench passed these orders while allowing the batch petitions filed by several villagers of Kochhaguttapalli, a hamlet of Allipur village in Chinnakodur mandal of Siddipet district.

The bench also directed the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, New Delhi to enquire into the actions of the said persons and any others which have resulted in violation of provisions of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in respect of petitioners who belong to the SC community and that their forcible eviction would attract the provisions of the Act, and directed it to recommend appropriate action to the competent authority against the officials within four months.

During the course of hearing, petitioners’ counsel Ch Ravi Kumar contended that the petitioners were working in the lands of their parents and others in the village and earning their livelihood. They cannot be forcibly evicted unless they are paid full rehabilitation and resettlement package of `7.5 lakh and allotted double bedroom house.

In December, 2019, the High Court passed an interim order directing the State not to release water into Ananthagiri Sagar reservoir until further orders, and later extended all the interim orders up to June 7 this year. However, water was admittedly released into the reservoir on April 18.

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