High Court puts due process before LTR eviction
In a Khammam land case, the Telangana High Court barred authorities from interfering with the petitioners’ property without following lawful procedure. It did not cancel the underlying LTR orders.
The High Court directed authorities to follow due process before interfering with the property in the Khammam case.
The Telangana High Court has directed authorities not to interfere with land in a Khammam LTR case without following due process. The order protects the petitioners’ property in this case; it is not a blanket suspension of eviction orders across Telangana.
The case concerns land claimed by Hanumakonda Veeraswamy and others at Gate Karepalle village in Singareni mandal. The authorities had reportedly found a violation under Section 3(1) of the Telangana Scheduled Area Land Transfer Regulation, 1970, ordered the land into government custody and assigned it to eligible landless tribal people. The petitioners’ appeal was dismissed, while their statutory revision was pending.
The State told the court that no eviction had taken place and that any future action would follow due process. The court disposed of the petition at the admission stage, recording that authorities must not interfere with the subject property without following the law. It did not decide title, possession, the validity of the underlying orders or the pending revision. Even eviction powers, it appears, still require paperwork before the paperwork becomes a panchanama.