HYDERABAD: Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy of the Telangana High Court has imposed costs of Rs 5 lakh on M/s. Industrial Oil Purification Pvt Ltd (IOP) for abusing the process of law by suppressing facts to commit fraud while claiming ownership of two acres of land at Narsingi in Rangareddy.
The court directed the firm to pay the costs to the High Court Legal Services Committee, Hyderabad, within four weeks.
The judge was hearing a writ petition filed by M/s Asian Tubes Pvt Ltd, represented by Shatrugan Agarwal, who accused IOP of illegally altering revenue records through the Dharani portal and obtaining a pattadar passbook on October 13, 2023.
Declaring this as illegal and void, the court directed authorities to restore the petitioner’s name in the revenue records, as it was before an interim order passed in 2014.
The petitioner had lawfully purchased the land by way of a registered sale deed in 1998. The ownership chain was established through legal documents dating back to 1965.
The petitioner alleged that IOP, in connivance with revenue officials, fraudulently secured a mutation order in 2014 without issuing proper notices to affected parties.
Despite an interim status quo order in 2014, IOP allegedly suppressed the facts and misrepresented information to secure illegal mutations and obtain a pattadar passbook.
In his orders, Justice Bhaskar Reddy annulled the mutation order and pattadar passbook issued in favor of the respondent and directed the authorities to restore the revenue records to their pre-2014 status. He also instructed officials to issue new pattadar passbooks to the petitioner within four weeks.
The judge ordered the state government to take disciplinary action against the revenue officials involved in altering the records in violation of the law.