The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled the decades-old litigation regarding the Manikonda Jagir land in favour of the state government saying that ‘all the lands are held with the state government only’. The Andhra Pradesh Waqf Board had claimed the ownership of 1,654.32 acres of Manikonda village and had said that the land belonged to Dargah Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali.
The final verdict pronounced by a division bench comprising Justice Hemnath Gupta and Justice V Ramasubramanian provided much-needed relief to several public and private institutes besides individual landowners. The lands in question are situated at Manikonda Jagir Village, Gandipet Mandal of Rangareddy district and value more than Rs 50,000 crore as of today, as per reports.
Settling the old land tussle between Dargah Hazrat Syed Hussain Shah Wali and the State government on the other side, the court observed that all the lands are held with the state government only. It said that the govt had sold some of these lands through e-auction to different individuals, companies and also allotted to various institutions, including Lanco Hills, Jana Chaitanya Housing Pvt Ltd, TNGOS Housing Society, Hyderabad Public Services Cooperative Society, Phoenix, WIPRO, ISB School and Urdu University.
The dispute came to light when the state government auctioned a portion of land to Lanco Group for establishing an integrated township. Another controversial project, Emaar also came upon the same land. The Court declared that the land would vest with the state and Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) and was free from encumbrance. It further declared a notification issued by the Wakf Board claiming the ownership of the land as invalid.
According to the reports, in the year 1989, the AP Waqf Board had issued a gazette notification showing the 5,506 square yards of land as owned by the Waqf Board authorities. Further, the Waqf Board issued an addendum to the gazette notification in 2006, stating an extent of 1,654.32 acres lands in various survey numbers of Manikonda Jagir, Rajendranagar Mandal as Waqf Lands.
One of the Dargah devotees had also moved to the High Court seeking a declaration that the action of the authorities allotting Waqf Lands to private organisations and individuals as illegal. The government had then filed an appeal before the division bench which set aside the single judge stay order on the lands.
The Telangana government and TSIIC along with the Lanco Hills Technology further moved to the Supreme Court and filed together three Special Leave Petitions (SLP). In the meantime, individual respondents had filed a writ before High Court, claiming that they have purchased land prior to the issuance of gazette notification. Subsequently, a transfer petition in Supreme Court was filed requesting that the judgement may be heard with Lango Hills Technology’s and TSIIC’s SLPs.
The Supreme Court today took into consideration the Jagir Abolition Act and returned the land to the state. The Court also has directed the government to make a cash payment to the jagirs and imams in terms of the commutation regulation, 90 per cent of the gross basic sum referred to in Section 4 of the Commutation Regulation. The arrears shall be calculated and paid to the dargah within six months, it ruled.
