Resumption of assigned lands for solar project stayed

The High Court at Hyderabad on Monday stayed all proceedings issued by Tahsildar of Gattu mandal, Mahbubnagar district, for resumption of the government assigned lands of hundreds of farmers in six villages of the mandal and directed the district Collector to file a detailed affidavit on this issue by June 3.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice P Naveen Rao took serious note of this matter while hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by advocate B Konda Reddy, who hailed from the region. Seeing that the show-cause notices and cancellation orders were not dated and it was not specified when the farmers were required to reply. The space for this was left blank.

“This is the reason why farmers are committing suicides. Is this the way to cancel the assignments given decades ago? There is absolutely no application of mind on the part of authorities” the High Court bench said. Senior counsel S Satyam Reddy, who argued on behalf of the petitioner, pointed out to the bench that both the show-cause notices and cancellation orders were handed over to the farmers on the same day.

He said the farmers brought this semi-arid lands into cultivation after spending huge sums of money, borrowed at high interest rates from private moneylenders. He said it was cruel to snatch the land by saying that the land was left uncultivated. The judges saw the colour photographs annexed with the petition that clearly showed farmers in front of their standing crops and orchards.

The Acting Chief Justice questioned whether the Tahsildar had ever visited the villages. Otherwise how could he give such useless orders. He warned the Tahsildar, who was present in the court, that the court would direct the government to take action against him. The court directed that the Tahsildar shall not pass any order relating to assigned lands. It also directed the Mahbubnagar district Collector to file a detailed affidavit explaining this action of the Tahsildar and if it cannot be justified, then cancel all the orders passed by Tahsildar. The matter was adjourned to June 6.