Supreme Court ends 23-year land battle, protects 550 acres of Telangana government land

The Supreme Court has dismissed a batch of appeals filed by private individuals claiming rights over more than 550 acres of land in Miyapur village, Serilingampally mandal, Rangareddy district, closing litigation that had remained pending for nearly 23 years.

A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma dismissed the appeals, including Civil Appeal No. 10699 of 2013, which concerned land in Survey Nos. 100 and 101. According to government sources, the decision provides legal protection to land estimated to be worth thousands of crores of rupees.

According to the State government, the disputed property comprises 277 acres and five guntas in Survey No. 100, and 273 acres and 34 guntas in Survey No. 101 — together a little over 550 acres. The land stands recorded as government property in revenue records.

Private individuals had challenged the government's ownership claims in court. The special court ruled in favour of the government in 1997, and the High Court followed in 2003. The private claimants then moved the Supreme Court, where the appeals remained pending for more than two decades.

The State's case rested on historical revenue records, including the Sethwar and Khasra registers, and on the findings of earlier judicial orders. The government also referred to observations in previous proceedings concerning alleged irregularities in the revenue entries relied upon by the private claimants. Senior advocate Vaidyanathan appeared for the State before the apex court.

According to the government, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy took a special interest in protecting valuable public land after the Congress government assumed office. He is said to have directed officials to expedite legal proceedings and to strengthen coordination between the government machinery and legal experts so that the matter could be argued effectively in the Supreme Court.

The land in question lies in Serilingampally mandal, part of western Hyderabad's urban belt, where land values have risen sharply over the past two decades as residential and commercial development has spread outward from the city. Disputes over title and revenue entries are common in such areas, and cases often take years to resolve through successive courts.

Details of the reasoning recorded in the order were not set out in the government's statement. The dismissal of the appeals means the earlier orders in the government's favour stand, and the land remains protected as public property. The claims of the private parties were not upheld.

The case is one of a series in which the State has sought to defend large parcels of land recorded in its name against private title claims. Officials said coordination between revenue departments and legal counsel would continue in similar pending matters.