The case was rooted in a certain land in Kompally village. The original plaintiff had initially filed an application to correct certain survey errors and secure title to the said property to which he claimed to be a co-owner.
However, before this application was even decided, a part of this land was declared a reserved forest in 1971, meaning that it could not be transferred to any private party.
Despite this, a Joint Collector at Warangal allowed the application filed by the plaintiff in 1981.
However, when the plaintiff realized that he would not gain any benefit from this action since the land was declared a forest area, he filed an application before the State government to denotify the said land. The State rejected his application in 1984, which was then challenged before a trial court.
The trial court granted the plaintiff title rights over the said land. However, it declined to allow the plaintiff’s claim for a permanent injunction to restrain the State authorities from continuing to retain the land.
In 2018, the Telangana High Court set aside the trial court’s finding regarding title but confirmed the trial court’s decision to refuse any injunction in favour of the plaintiff. The High Court proceeded to dismiss the plaintiff’s suit completely, after noting that the suit property fell under forest land.
However, the 2018 ruling was reversed by the High Court itself in 2021 after a review plea was filed.
Notably, the concerned district collector had initially stated on affidavit that the suit property was forest land in the first round of litigation before the High Court.
However, when the High Court was sitting in review, the Collector stated before a government committee that the suit property needed to be excluded from the scope of reserved forest land.
The High Court relied on this change in stance to grant title rights to the original plaintiff by its 2021 verdict.
This 2021 ruling was challenged by the State before the apex court.
Source: Barandbench
