Government orders to help land grabbers in regularising lands

22 Mar 2022 CW Team

The Telangana High Court gave the chief secretary an ultimatum of six weeks to file a counter affidavit to a 2015 Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The PIL challenged government order (GO) 59, which allowed occupants of government lands in urban areas to regularise encroachment of public land for a fee that they had occupied.

The state has been avoiding filing its counter for the last seven years.

Petitioner counsel, Chikkudu Prabhakar, told the media the state had issued two government orders (GOs), 58 and 59, for regularisation. The court did not challenge GO 58 as it was for small plots from one sq yd to 250 sq yd occupied by people for dwelling. The court had challenged GO 59 as it gave undue advantage to land grabbers.

The court will collect a nominal fee from those who encroached government land from 251 sq yd and above. The GO also allows land grabbers to pay the nominal fees in four instalments to regularise the land.

Besides an inordinate delay in filing its counter to the court, the state-issued order, GO MS No 14, in February is allowing another fresh round of regularisation process.

He added that an interim application had been filed, modifying to include the February 2022 GO. The policy of regularisation of big land deals runs counter to land encroachment and land grabbing acts.

He told the media that the state’s regularisation of GOs also violates the spirit of several Supreme Court orders.

He said that the GOs would only help the land grabbers who had occupied government land parcels in urban areas of the city. Moreover, it will violate the land ceiling Act provisions.

Prabhakar said if the state fails to file a counter in the court, the chief secretary will have to appear before the next hearing. The Bench has posted the next case to 20 July.

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