Telangana high court judges issue notices to IAS officer Navin Mittal over land NOC petitions by 85-year-old

HYDERABAD: Two separate single judge courts of the Telangana high court on Thursday issued two notices to senior IAS officer and former CCLA Navin Mittal asking him to explain his alleged illegal actions in a land dispute case.

The notices were issued in response to two petitions filed by 85-year-old Shanti Agarwal who has accused Mittal, then Hyderabad collector, of issuing NOC in 2011 over her land to unrelated persons and also trying to portray it as non-evacuee property. Agarwal has said that the 5,262 square yard plot in survey number 284/6 of Nanal Nagar in Gudimalkapur was evacuee property auctioned by the Union govt in 1960, which she bought in 1965.In 2017, a single judge had set aside the NOC and directed the state to initiate disciplinary action against Mittal and other revenue officials part of the NOC committee for using irrelevant documents furnished by third parties to grant them NOC. The 85-year-old, who had so far been fighting the legal battle alone, was recently joined by her son Atul Agarwal. They together filed the two separate pleas. In April this year, their plea to prosecute everyone involved was accepted by a trial court, but it kept it in abeyance in respect of Mittal and survey inspector R Keshavulu in absence of govt sanction.

The trial court's decision not to prosecute Mittal was challenged by the duo on the grounds that he was not eligible for protection as what he did was not his official discharge of duty but a criminal conspiracy in collusion with criminals. On Thursday, Justice N Tukaramji heard the plea and issued notice to Mittal. Apart from challenging the trial court's decision, Shanthi Agarwal had also filed two applications (April 2024 & May 2025) before the chief secretary (CS) urging him to accord sanction to prosecute Mittal and a few other public servants. As the CS neither approved or rejected prosecution sanction despite a three-month deadline fixed by the Supreme Court, she filed another petition before HC saying that the trial court need not wait for such sanction any more. On Thursday, Justice K Lakshman, gave notices to CS, Mittal, Keshavulu and others seeking their replies.