HYDERABAD: The State government won a 11-year legal battle on Tuesday when the Supreme Court passed an order in its favour with regard to 540 acres of endowment lands located near Kukatpally ‘Y’ Junction. The market value of the lands is worth approximately Rs 15,000 crore. The lands were originally donated to Udasin Mutt by Kamalapathi Baba Sahib in 1313 Fasli (1904). The Mutt is located at Hussaini Alam in the city but it had 540.30 acres of land in Kukatpally ‘Y’ Junction.
The lands were given on lease to M/s IDL Ltd (India Detonator Ltd), an enterprise of M/s Hinduja in phases between 1964 and 1978. Later, IDL’s name was changed to Gulf Oil Corporation. When the lease was cancelled in 2011, the company started a legal battle against the Endowments Department over the said land. However, the Supreme Court in its final judgement dismissed the company’s appeal.
The Endowments Department leased the lands to the company for 99 years in four spells -- for Rs 5,148 per acre per year for the first five years, for Rs 7,799 per acre for per year for the next 10 years, for Rs 10,444 per ace per year for the following 10 years, for Rs 13,092 per acre per year for the next 25 years and for Rs 15,500 per acre per year for the remaining 49 years.
The lease was granted for buffer zone for the industry. However, the industry took up real estate development on the total land of 538 acres of the Mutt along with 300 acres of its own land. The lease was cancelled in the Endowment Tribunal in 2011 for violating the lease agreement. The company then filed a writ petition in High Court in 2011.
As the High Court dismissed the writ petition in 2013, the company filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court the same year. The apex court granted status quo on May 7, 2013 and finally dismissed the appeal of the company on Tuesday.