Hyderabad HC: 'G’ is not conclusive proof for government land

The Hyderabad revenue officials who recorded a private property at Nampally as government property landed in trouble with the High Court on Wednesday.

The bench of acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi was hearing an appeal filed by Telangana government against an order of a single judge, who also found it shocking to hear the argument of the state counsel.

According to the state counsel, their town survey land record (TSLR) prepared between 1963 and 1976 listed the property in question as ‘G’ in a column, meaning that it was government land.

Finding it unacceptable, the bench ruled in favour of Kamal Kishore Agarwal, owner of the private property at Nampally.

He claims to be the owner of properties at Aghapura, Nampally mandal after his father registered a sale deed having bought it from one Fatimunnisa Begum in 1955.

Questioning as to why a 1955 registered sale deed was not mentioned in the town survey that took place a decade later, the bench also pointed out that one of the columns mentioned in TSLR did have the name of Fatimunnisa Begum, showing her as the owner of the property.

Senior counsel appearing for Kamal Kishore Agarwal told the bench that the ‘G’ entry is not conclusive proof to say this was government land. The Bench asked for the state counsel to provide something other than this G to say it is a government land and approach a civil court if it wants to prove its title.