State must pay for Nehru-era colony: Court
Litigant had been running from pillar to post to claim ownership for the past 20 years
The Hyderabad High Court has directed the Telangana government to pay compensation to the owner of the land on which Jai Jawahar Nagar Colony was constructed way back in 1955 at Yapral in Hyderabad. The payment would have to be made within three months as per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
Jai Jawahar Nagar Colony was inaugurated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, in 1956. The colony was claimed to have been built on the land donated by former minister and MP late M.R. Krishna.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait was allowing S. Narendra in seeking a direction to the government to pay compensation to him for the land, where the colony was built and also the lands which was assigned by the government.
The petitioner also wanted the court to allow him to enjoy the possession of vacant land of 9.35 acres out of 20.41 acres — owned by his late father Sree Ramulu in Survey No. 196 and 9.35 acres in Survey No. 197 — at Yapral as per the High Court orders issued in 1997 and 2001.
The judge said, “I have no hesitation to say that M.R. Krishna, the then MP used his influence over the revenue officials and created a false proceedings to show the land belonged to him and donated the land for the colony which he is not a registered pattadar at all.”
The petitioner told the court that the litigation began when he came to know that the name of his father was deleted from revenue records and refusal of his application by revenue authorities to incorporate his name in records in 1993.
He submitted that he moved the court in 1997 against the action of the revenue authorities and the court granted the order in his favour.
He further said that then the state government moved an appeal in 2001. “When it got dismissed by the High Court, the erstwhile AP government moved SLP before the SC in 2013, which it was turned down by the apex court,” he said.
In 1997 and 2011, the High Court passed orders for the acquisition of lands after it noticed that it was not possible to restore the land in his favour since the government allotted lands to various persons treating it as a government land. He said that he was compelled to file this present petition as the Telangana government is also not taking any steps to pay the compensation to him. The judge after perusing the records of the litigation observed that, “unfortunately, till date, the petitioner has been running from pillar to post. This is heights of non-implementation of order passed by the court”.