HYDERABAD: By overturning the single judge’s orders, a division bench of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday ended the long-running Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) dispute over a land parcel in Sanathnagar, Hyderabad. The land measures 11.5 acres and is worth more than Rs 500 crore.
“We have no hesitation in our mind that a single judge had erred on facts as well as in law in declaring the notice dated January 5, 2008, under Section 10(5) of the ULC Act,” held the division bench, comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy, while dismissing two writ petitions.
The respondent in this case, M/s AP Electrical Equipment Corporation, had filed a writ petition in 2009, asking for a declaration that the tahsildar Balanagar Mandal was acting arbitrarily and unjustly by interfering with the subject property’s peaceful possession.
The respondent claimed that the land belonged to a firm registered under the Companies Act of 1956, which manufactures and sells electrical equipment. Respondent had acquired land totalling 1,63,764 square yards in survey numbers 74, 75, 76, 78, and 79, at Fathenagar village, Balanagar mandal, in Rangareddy district in 1965, with the intention of establishing its manufacturing plant.
In 1982, the government issued a GO exempting the full extent of the property, or 57,026 square metres, on the justification that the respondent had built manufacturing premises there.The government issued another GO exempting the 48,859 square metres of land for building dwelling units for the workers under Section 21 of the ULC Act.
Due to the respondent company’s failure to build the houses within the allotted five years, the competent authority issued a notification under Section 10(3) of the ULC Act, declaring that the state government had acquired the land.