Government cannot refuse to conduct land survey: Hyderabad High Court

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad High Court has made it clear that it was mandatory for authorities concerned to conduct survey of land as requested by a person and cannot refuse to conduct such survey. In the present case, the court granted liberty to the petitioner to proceed legally challenging the decision of Tahsildar in ‘rejecting’ his application seeking to conduct survey of the land owned by him.

Justice P Naveen Rao passed this order recently while dismissing a petition filed by one Venkata Leela Krishnam Raju from Hyderabad city, seeking to declare the action of the authorities concerned in rejecting his application to conduct survey of his land admeasuring four cents in survey number 128/7 at Gottiwada village in Sabbavaram manda in Visakhapatnam district.

The petitioner’s counsel alleged encroachment of subject land by the owners of adjacent land with an intention to save their land from road widening. When an application was submitted requesting to conduct survey as the petitioner’s land was encroached by moving the boundary stones, it was found to be rejected. No reasons were assigned for such rejection, he said. On the other hand, the government counsel submitted that the decision of Tahsildar was based on the report by the mandal surveyor.