High court faults GO, lifts bar on registering Patancheru plots

HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Wednesday found fault with the state government's orders, asking sub-registrars not to register land plots in the Patancheru area. Justice M Sudheer Kumar set aside an August 2007 government order and those by the Sanga Reddy district collector in six different cases, and directed the stamps and registration department to register sale deeds.
For putting land plots and other properties on the prohibited list, the district collector must follow a process mandated by law, the judge said in his order, covering all six cases. The collector had no authority to address letters to the registering authorities. "He has to do it with proper backing of section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908," said the order.
P Roy Reddy, counsel for one of the petitioners said his client, Mohammad Azeem Ali, bought 410 square yards in Patancheru from G Mallikarjun Rao on December 3, 2019. The sale deed was presented to the registering authority the same day but it was rejected. Mallikarjun had got the land from Industrial Employees Cooperative House Building Society in 1984.
The sub-registrar, in his rejection letter, mentioned that the Sanga Reddy collector wrote a letter to him not to register plots sold by this society. When the judge sought reasons for the restriction, the state government stated that one V Narayana Rao of Patancheru village had floated the society in April 1980 and enrolled 800 members who were trying to secure a house plot. Narayana acquired land from various sources. The government also said that some extent of land was in the assigned category which could not be sold. The state government in 1996 had set up an assembly committee to inquire into the issue. The committee had recommended regularising the plots. The state government in 2007 issued an order rejecting the recommen- dation and refused to allow registrations of land in the assigned category.
The government, however, allowed the society to take things forward for land covered by regular pattas belonging to farmers. A single judge had earlier partially struck down this government and directed the authorities to allow registration of land plots allotted to political sufferers and freedom fighters.