Over 300 housing board employees win battle with Telangana government over plots
Representative ImageHYDERABAD: In a big victory for 320 employees of the Telangana Housing Board after nearly 25 years of litigation over house plots, the Telangana high court on Friday rejected the contentions of the government and the board and directed them to register plots to all the allottees on receipt of stated payment within four months.
The HC also quashed GO 32 which restrained genuine allottees as well as set aside the order of a single judge restricting the benefit to a select number.
The directive from a bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice NV Shravan Kumar came in the case stemming from a scheme floated by the housing board way back in 1979 for allotment of house plots.
In 1986, as per the notification, 320 board employees were allotted plots spread over 70,000 sq yds.
The litigation started when the state decided to convert these 320 plots into flats in 2006 and all the allottees filed a batch of writ petitions.
A single judge partly allowed the writ petitions by restricting the relief to only 107 employees who had made full payment of the enhanced amount and directed the board to register the plots only for them.
Aggrieved by the single judge’s order, the state and housing board filed an appeal. Appeals were also filed by the 213 allottees who were denied the benefit by the single judge on the ground of non-payment of the entire enhanced amount.
Senior counsel D Prakash Reddy appearing for some allottees said the land could not have been converted into flats after it was allotted to individual members. The decision by the state government was vitiated and arbitrary as well as contrary to the recommendations of the cabinet sub-committee, he said.
However, state’s special counsel Harender Pershad said the decision was based on dwindling availability of land and need to satisfy other stakeholders.
Writing the order for the bench, Justice Shravan Kumar found fault with the state for denying the benefit to the allottees and directed the government to hand over the plots to the employees.
