HYDERABAD: Telangana high court on Tuesday directed the revenue department to file its counter in a petition filed by civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar charging the minority welfare department’s secretary with inaction in removing his 15 acres and 26 guntas of land in survey No. 126 at Kazipur village of Kothapalli mandal in Karimnagar district from the wakf properties’ list.
He also challenged the alleged attempts of the district collector to keep this land in the prohibited list under section 22-A of the Stamps and Registration Act. Upon being informed that Kamalakar filed a similar petition in 2014 also in respect of the same land, Justice P Naveen Rao directed the registry to tag both these pleas together and adjourned the case to March 23 for a combined hearing of both the pleas.
According to Kamalakar, the land in survey number 126 belongs to Syed Hameeduddin, an inamdar. After affirmation by a civil court in Karimnagar, state wakf board in 1981 recognised Hameeduddin as the inamdar for certain portions of land in Kothapalli mandal. He was also appointed as muthavali of the old idgah of Karimnagar. Scores of people bought land plots from Hameeduddin and were granted ORCs by then RDO under the provisions of Inams Abolition Act.
The minister also said that he filed a petition before the high court in 2014 challenging the gazette notification given by the wakf authorities on January 11, 1990, notifying the land in survey No. 126 as wakf land. That petition is still pending before the high court.
District collector of Karimnagar is taking steps to keep land on prohibited list under section 22-A of Stamps and Registrations Act on the ground that they were already included in wakf properties list.