New Delhi: Putting to rest a nearly three-decade-old legal battle, the Supreme Court Tuesday declared that the ownership of a large tract of about 200 acres of land in Telangana's Ranga Reddy district would be transferred in favour of the ‘elite’ Greyhounds Commando Force.
The apex court stressed the land has acquired enormous value and some documents indicate that “land mafia has already ousted the gullible assignees and now have vulture’s eyes on the land”.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and J K Maheshwari said serious allegations prevail against the appellants for being involved with the land mafia to usurp the subject land for private interests which was the precise reason for the government to introduce legislation in the nature of the Andhra Pradesh Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act of 1977.
The bench said a security agency of paramount national importance currently occupied it in the public interest and used the land for training purposes. Noting that the dispute was pending since 1994, the bench, in its 97-page judgment, said it deems appropriate to invoke its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice to the parties.
The top court issued the following directions: "The Subject Land in its entirety is declared to have vested in the State Government. On further allotment, its ownership and possessory rights, free from all encumbrances, stand transferred in favour of the Greyhounds”.
The bench said that no civil court or high court shall entertain any claim whatsoever on behalf of any assignee, their legal representative, GPA holder or any other claimant under any agreement to sell or other instruments, claiming direct or indirect interests in the subject land. “There shall be a final quietus of title and possessory dispute over the Subject Land in favour of the RespondentState and/or the agency to whom the said land has been allotted”, said the bench.
The apex court said that the lands earlier allotted on a temporary basis to several persons were transferred in contravention of the provisions of the Act of 1977, which prohibited the transfer of land assigned to landless poor people.
The bench said, “We are not oblivious to the fact that the parties have been litigating since the year 1994. During these decades, the subject land has acquired enormous value. Some of the documents on record do indicate that the land mafia has already ousted the gullible assignees and now have vulture’s eyes on the land”.
The representatives of families claiming rights over the village, which was allotted to Greyhounds, in Rangareddy district, had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in Supreme Court challenging the verdict of a division bench of Telangana High Court on the ownership of the lands. The high court had delivered a verdict observing that the lands in question belonged to Greyhounds as the government allotted it to the commando force.
