Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the Chief Secretary (CS) to instruct all district collectors to freshly prepare prohibition lists of land and convey them to sub-registrars within nine weeks. The order came in response to scores of petitions complaining that the registration department was refusing to register their properties citing their inclusion in the prohibited list.Apprehending that the orders might be put in cold storage, the court directed the CS to file an affidavit within 10 days on the status of implementation. Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti instructed the CS to inform the court by September 3 whether the task had been entrusted to district collectors and whether they were acting on it. The judge also cautioned that failure to comply would compel the CS to physically appear before the court.Justice Anil Kumar was dealing with petitions filed by several plot owners in Shankara Hills and Vattinagulapally, who complained that the registration department had refused to register sale deeds, gift deeds and other alienations, citing the prohibition list. Apart from these petitions, around 5,100 writ petitions over refusal of registrations on the same grounds are pending before his Bench. The judge had already directed the government last week to clarify whether steps had been taken to resolve the issue.The court pointed out that it had issued orders 10 years ago to prepare a prohibited list, with reasons for inclusion of land parcels, and to forward it to the registration department. On Monday, it questioned whether those directions had ever been implemented.On Monday, government counsel for the revenue department, Katram Muralidhar Reddy, informed the court that a special mechanism had now been established to resolve land disputes under Section 22-A of the Stamps and Registrations Act. He submitted Government Order Ms No. 98, issued on August 23, constituting a three-member committee to examine such cases.The committee will be chaired by the secretary to the government and chief commissioner of land administration (CCLA), with a retired district judge to be appointed by the state government as a member, and the commissioner of survey and settlement as member-convener. It will examine records and pass reasoned orders to accept or reject grievances by confirming, deleting or modifying properties from the notified prohibited list.According to the GO, such orders will be binding on both the state and the aggrieved party. Any further challenge will have to be made before a competent court of law. The committee will have a three-year tenure and must meet at least once a month.After this was placed before him, Justice Anil Kumar expressed doubts over how effectively it would be implemented, noting that earlier High Court directions had not been acted upon.
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