The order by a division bench comprising Justices Goda Raghuram and R. Subhashan Reddy came as a huge relief to the state which had been struck in a legal tangle with real-estate companies that had purchased about 70 acres of this land through auction. The HMDA auctioned the land under the Golden Mile Project in July 2006 which fetched Rs 703cr, including a bid of Rs 14.5cr per acre for a five-acre plot. The bidders paid Rs 435cr up front.
Reputed names like Prestige Gardens Estate Group from Bengaluru, Today from Delhi, My Home Constructions Private Ltd., Hyderabad, Lake Point Builders, Mumbai, Madhucon Properties, Pioneer Telafo-ne Ltd. of Viceroy Group, IBC Knowledge Park, Beng-aluru, and Kailash Ganga Constructions were among the successful bidders. The bidders had approached the court as there was a delay in handing over the property. They contended that the authorities had not informed them that there were writ petitions pending regarding the land.
On Wednesday, the bench allowed a batch of writ appeals by the state government and the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority challenging an earlier order of a single judge, which had set aside a memo by declaring that it was against the principles of natural justice. On May 21, 2005 the state government had declared the land as government land.
Mr K.S.B. Ali and others, who claimed to be legal heirs of Nawab Nusarat Jung Bahadur-I, have been fighting over the land, contending that at no point of time was the land resumed by the government under any enactment, except that possession was taken after the death of the Nawab, in the limited context of determining the legal heirs, who succeeded to it.
The legal heirs of Nusarat Jung have been fighting for the land since 1960 and the government had issued certain circulars and memos from time to time based on court orders. In 2002, the government issued a memo declaring there was no need to mutate the names of the legal heirs in the munta-khab. It had issued two other memos in 2004 stating that the muntakhab to be implemented.