Telangana High Court imposed costs of ₹50,000 on Mohan Rao, the Competent Officer appointed under section of Evacuee Interest Separation Act-1951, for failing ‘to settle a land dispute even after a period of 25 years’.

Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy of the HC, pronouncing verdict in a writ petition filed by legal heirs of one Saleha Fatima Begum, directed the Competent Officer to dispose of the application filed by them within three months. Observing that facts of the case shook the conscience of the HC, the judge said the competent officer failed to adjudicate the matter even after lapse of 25 years.

Saleh Fatima owned lands in different parts of Jangaon district. Since her family members and siblings migrated to Pakistan after Partition of the country, their properties were classified as Evacuee Properties under the provision of the Evacuee Interest (Separation) Act-1951. Saleha Begum secured registered sale certificate of the properties in 1967 by paying ₹38,415 to the government. She passed away in 1987 without asserting any representation or claim for the properties.

Her legal heirs in 1988 approached the government to allot the lands to them and secured an order in their favour in 1989. Challenging this, a third party approached the HC claiming rights over the property. After a prolonged legal battle, the HC in 2000 directed them to approach the Competent Officer who directed both the parties to maintain status quo.

The petitioners approached the HC stating that the CO kept their application pending for the past 25 years, and meanwhile the 1951 Act was repealed. “It is very unfortunate that the petitioner and his predecessors are contesting the litigations for issuance of sale certificate since more than seven decades,” the judge observed in the verdict.