Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili of Telangana High Court directed the State government to maintain status quo with regard to 18.30 acres of land belonging to University of Hyderabad in Gachchibowli.
Passing the interim directions o a writ petition filed by the UoH stating that State government was interfering with possession of the said land by laying a road, the judge posted the matter after two weeks for next hearing. The University of Hyderabad knocked the doors of HC seeking an order to restrain State government from interfering with its land in Gachchibowli.
UoH Registrar P. Sardar Singh, in a writ petition, requested the HC to declare State government’s attempts to take over the land for laying a road as arbitrary and illegal. In 1975, unified Andhra Pradesh allocated 2,324.05 acres of land to UoH, which was established by the Centre, under survey numbers 1 to 9 and 14 to 24 and 25 of Kancha Gachchibowli village of Serilingampally mandal in Rangareddy district.
According to the petitioner, the State government subsequently took back nearly 700 acres of that land and reassigned the same to various institutions and some private individuals. The government assured to provide alternative land but the assurance never materialised.
Nine years ago, Rangareddy district Collector wrote to Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) securing permission to resume 10.23 acres of the university land in survey no. 25 for laying a road. The university opposed the proposal stating that Union Cabinet Secretary in 2011 clarified that no property of the University can be parted with unless the Union government approved it.
Meanwhile, the Collector instructed Serilingmapally Tahsildar to hand over that land to GHMC to lay the road. The petitioner told the court that he noticed that GHMC started levelling of ground work to lay the road five days ago. “All our efforts to reason with the Respondents fell under deaf ears,” he stated in the petition.
