Congress MLAs’ PIL plea over Khajaguda land: HC directs them to submit representation afresh to government

Telangana High Court on Monday (June 16) directed four ruling Congress party MLAs, who filed a PIL petition seeking directions to suspend permission given to a builder to raise eight towers in 27 acres of land at Khajaguda claiming it as government land, to submit a representation to the government afresh on the matter. 

The bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Renuka Yara told the PIL petitioners’ counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar that orders cannot be passed in the matter immediately as details of the disputed lands were not clearly mentioned. Directing the petitioners to take up the issue with the government by presenting a memorandum afresh, the Bench adjourned the hearing for two weeks. 

MLAs Janampalli Anirudh Reddy-Jadcherla, Yennam Srinivas Reddy-Mahbubnagar, Murali Naik Bhukya-Mahbubabad and Kuchkulla Rajesh Reddy-Nagarkurnool contended that M/s Bandi Bindu were building eight towers, each of 47 floors, near Khajaguda lake in Hyderabad in 27 acres of government land. They maintained that the land belonged to State government since 1969. 

But the then State government in 2023 gave building and construction permission to the builder to construct high-rise buildings in the said land. This was preceded by some litigation, advocate Chikkudu Prabhakar told the Division Bench. He said that the present government too permitted the construction through file no. 005862/GHMC/2937/SLP/2022-BP dated October 24, 2024. 

The petitioners’ counsel informed the Bench that they had earlier represented the matter to the State government but no action was initiated in the matter. He argued that part of the towers were coming under the Full Tank Level of Khajaguda lake and the builder had set up a ready-mix plan near Oarkridge School to erect the structures. 

According to the counsel, two persons approached the Rangareddy District Collector in 1969 claiming that their 27 acres of land in Khajaguda was wrongly declared as government land due to mistakes in survey numbers. Their application was dismissed by the authorities. Eventually, they moved the HC which directed the officials to examine the issue. Meanwhile, another writ petition was filed claiming rights on the same land. 

Eventually, both the parties withdrew the petitions from the HC claiming to settle the matter between themselves. In 2023, the 17th respondent secured permission for constructing the towers. The permission granted was illegal and arbitrary as the land belonged to State government, lawyer Chikkudu Prabhakar contended. 

The Bench sought to know from him the precise details of the survey numbers of the lands belonging to government and private parties as per the representation made to the government for which he sought time. 

Published - June 16, 2025 10:06 pm IST