A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court today ruled that lands allotted to IT companies and real estate firms in the Manikonda area of the city are to be adjudicated by the Wakf Tribunal.

Mr Justice V.V.S.Rao and Mr Justice R. Kantha Rao pronounced that all the issues regarding the nature, ownership of lands and its use are to be adjudicated by the Tribunal.

The Bench dismissed the writ petitions filed by the State Government, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and some of the allottees of the prime land in the IT hub of the city.

The State Government had allotted land to companies in Manikonda jagir to APIIC. It had, in turn, allotted land to IT companies such as Infosys, Microsoft, Wipro, Polaris, infrastructure developers such as Lanco Infratech, Emaar Properties and other institutions such as Indian School of Business.

These ended up in claims that these lands belong to local Darga Hajrath Hussain Wali and hence are Wakf Property. This was challenged by the allottees and the Government.

Petitions

In the meanwhile, petitions were filed in Wakf Tribunal seeking a stay of all further constructions in these lands and interim orders passed. These interim orders of the tribunal were challenged by the companies by filing civil revision petitions.

The Bench said that this controversy whether the lands are Wakf lands or not cannot be adjudicated here in High Court. While citing the Supreme Court judgments, the Bench said that these issues are best adjudicated by the Tribunal. The writ petitions and the civil revision petitions were accordingly dismissed.

The area encompasses about 1654.34 acres of land. While some were allotted land by APIIC, others such as Lanco purchased them through an auction process.

>vrishi@thehindu.co.in

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