Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday expressed surprise over how an evacuee property heir application remained pending for 25 years despite clear court directions.
Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy, hearing a petition filed by Abul Khair Naseeruddin Kamran, took strong exception to the inaction of the competent authority, who had failed to resolve the application filed in 2000 for issuing a sale certificate to the legal heirs of Fatima Begum.
The dispute concerns evacuee lands across several villages in the old Jangaon taluk — including Kundaram, Bekkala, Samudrala, Jangaon, Metturu, Maduru, Singarajapalli, Bahiripalli, Pakhal, Palakurthi, Irrevenu, Mutharam, Ippuguda, and Raghunathpalli. After some members of the family migrated to Pakistan, the evacuees’ property was vested with the competent authority under the relevant law, while their sister, Saleha Fatima Begum, stayed back and obtained a sale certificate.
However, the land was removed from the sale certificate register in 1962, prompting the heirs to approach the High Court. In compliance with earlier court directions, they applied in 2000 to regularise their rights. But since then, the competent authority neither processed the application nor permitted mutation of the land pending enquiry, even after a fresh representation by the heirs last year.
The bench termed the prolonged delay unacceptable and ordered the competent authority to dispose of the application within three months. Additionally, the court imposed a cost of ₹50,000 on the official, payable to the Army Welfare Fund, for failing to act on time.
