Telangana HC Seeks Police Reply On Alleged Interference In Property Dispute

Hyderabad: Justice NV Shravan Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Friday directed the Cyberabad police commissioner and the Shamirpet station house officer SHO to file their arguments in a writ petition alleging unlawful interference by the police in the civil property dispute. The court asked how the police could decide the title over the land and give private persons ownership of the land.

The judge was dealing with a petition filed by Mendu Anil Kumar, who claimed that he was the owner and possessor of a plot of land in Thumkunta, purchased through a registered sale deed in 2018, and that he was paying property tax and electricity charges regularly. He stated that on December 9, with the support of Shamirpet police, a person named Venkat Reddy entered the property without permission, forcibly took away the security guard and occupied the property.

According to the petitioner, despite submitting the title documents through a former sarpanch who filed a complaint on his behalf, the police refused to recognize it as his registered property and instead relied on a notarized sale agreement prepared by a private party. The petitioner argued that the police had no authority to adjudicate civil title disputes or award title to any party and that their actions amounted to usurpation of the jurisdiction of the civil court and violation of Article 300-A of the Constitution.