Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has dismissed petitions seeking to lift the interim stay on land transactions in Nagaram village of Maheshwaram mandal, Ranga Reddy district.
The stay was originally imposed on April 24, prohibiting any transactions involving Bhoodan lands.
Justice K Lakshman issued the orders while hearing multiple petitions filed by senior IAS officer Naveen Mittal, IAS officer Vikas Raj’s daughter Aishwarya Raj, IPS officer Vishwaprasad’s son Varun, and representatives of EIPL Constructions.
The petitioners had requested removal of their names from the list of prohibited lands and urged the court to vacate the stay.
The court rejected these requests, upholding the earlier orders.
Another set of petitions filed in the same matter was also dismissed. The case stems from a public interest petition filed by Birla Mallesh, who sought a CBI and ED probe into alleged irregularities in Nagaram land transactions.
HC’s previous orders
Based on his plea, the High Court had previously issued interim stay orders barring transactions and directing that the lands be included in the list of prohibited properties.
During Friday’s hearing, Justice Lakshman noted that a division bench had already refused to interfere in related appeals, and therefore, there were no grounds to revoke the stay. Consequently, the officials’ plea to lift the stay was turned down.
The court also dismissed another petition by Birla Mallesh seeking copies of land passbooks, pahanies, and mutation proceedings. However, the judge clarified that he may apply to the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) and other competent authorities for certified copies of the documents.
A separate plea by Nagaram resident Vaddya Ramulu, who claimed ownership of 10.17 acres through a gift deed from his father and requested a judicial commission to probe all related transactions, was also rejected.
The court, however, permitted 28 individuals who claimed to have purchased the disputed lands and obtained pattadar passbooks to be impleaded as respondents. Justice Lakshman recognised them as affected parties in the case.
The court observed that there were preliminary indications of involvement by private persons as well as senior IAS and IPS officers in irregularities concerning Nagaram lands.
It also recorded that serious allegations were made against former Ranga Reddy District Collector Amoy Kumar, which would be examined during the ongoing proceedings.
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