HYDERABAD: In a major relief to the State government, the Supreme Court on Monday delivered a judgment in its favour with regard to Manikonda Jagir land parcels of about 1,654.32 acres whose value is more than Rs 50,000 crore. The lands are situated at Manikonda Jagir Village, Gandipet mandal of Rangareddy district.
A bench, comprising Justices Hemanth Gupta and V Ramasubramanian, settled the long-pending tussle between Dargah Hazrat Syed Hussain Shah Wali supported by Waqf Board and Waqf Tribunal on one side and the State government and the land allottees of Lanco Hills, Emmar Properties, Indian School of Business (ISB) and so on, on the other side.
The Supreme Court while passing the orders in favour of Telangana government, observed that “all the lands are held with the State government only”.The government has sold some of these lands through e-auction to different individuals, companies and also allotted to various institutions, including Lanco Hills, Jana Chaitanya Housing Pvt Ltd, TNGOS Housing Society, Hyderabad Public Services Cooperative Society, Phoenix, WIPRO, ISB School and Urdu University, which have been included in the subject lands.
The AP Waqf Board on February 9, 1989, issued a gazette notification showing only the land and the house of Mutawalli, to an extent of 5,506 sq yds only as the lands of the Waqf Board authorities. Further, the Waqf Board again issued addendum to the gazette notification in March 13, 2006, stating that an extent of 1,654.32 acres lands in various survey numbers of Manikonda Jagir, Rajendranagar mandal as Waqf Lands.
The then MLC, claiming to be the devotee of Dargha filed writ petition before the High Court, seeking declaration that the action of the authorities allotting Waqf Lands to private organisations and individuals as illegal. A single judge granted a stay.
The then government filed an appeal before division bench which set aside the single judge order. A suit was filed before the Waqf Tribunal by Masquati and another professing Islamic faith, and claiming to be interested persons for a declaration that the property is a registered Waqf property attached to Darga Hazarth Hussainin Shah Vali.
The Waqf Tribunal granted interim orders, restraining the respondents in the above suit from continuing with any construction work, laying roads and changing the nature of suit land in manner whatsoever for a short period and which was extended subsequently.
Respondents challenged Waqf Tribunal orders again in the High Court which suspended the interim orders of Tribunal. After hearing a batch cases, the High Court has passed common orders on April 3, 2012 directing the parties liberty to approach the Waqf Tribunal and get impleaded in the pending cases to plead their case before the Tribunal.
Aggrieved by the orders of the High Court, the then government and APIIC -- presently Telangana government and TSIIC -- filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court. The Lanco Hills Technology has also filed two more SLPs before the apex court.
In the meantime, Achamma and others have also filed a writ before High Court, claiming that they have purchased a land prior to the issuance of gazette notification. Subsequently, she filed a transfer petition in Supreme Court, requesting that the same may be heard with Lango Hills Technology Private Limited SLPs.Finally the Supreme Court ended the decades-old pending tussle by ruling in favour of the State government.