Supreme Court Delivers Key Verdict on Miyapur Land

The Supreme Court has ruled that 550.39 acres of land covered by Survey Numbers 100 and 101 in Miyapur, Hyderabad, belong to the government. A bench comprising Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma delivered a 44-page judgment on Thursday, dismissing petitions filed by private individuals claiming ownership of the land. The court noted that a survey conducted in 1912 had classified 277.05 acres in Survey No. 100 and 273.34 acres in Survey No. 101 as government poramboke land. It strongly criticised attempts to claim valuable public land through allegedly fraudulent entries in revenue records, observing that individuals and officials had acted in collusion. The bench made it clear that ownership rights cannot be granted merely through a revenue entry without proper legal proceedings.

The Supreme Court upheld the earlier rulings of the AP Land Grabbing Special Court and the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh High Court, bringing a long-running legal dispute that began in 1995 to a decisive conclusion. The special court had rejected the claims filed by Bandari Ramachander and several other private individuals in 1997, identifying them as land grabbers and directing the authorities to take possession of the property. The High Court upheld that decision in 2003. After examining the historical records, including the Nizam-era jagir arrangements, succession claims and entries in revenue documents, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the land belongs to the government. The ruling upholds the government's claim over the entire 550.39-acre property.