Tribunal order in Manikonda case on March 17

HYDERABAD: Arguments in the Manikonda jagir case by the counsels of Lanco Hills Technology Park Ltd (LHTPL), Dargah Hazrath Hussain Shah Vali and the State Wakf Board before the State Wakf Tribunal were completed on Tuesday. The tribunal will pronounce its order on March 17.
The tribunal had taken up the hearing on Monday at the direction of the high court that had acted on a petition filed by LHTPL seeking vacation of the status quo order on the sale, alienation, transfer, mortgage, exchange and lease of the entire property in Manikonda jagir admeasuring 1654.32 acres.The share of LHTPL is 108.10 acres. Besides Lanco, there are 16 other respondents in the case, including the SWB.
The tribunal had passed an injunction order on February 14 in a suit filed by the managing committee of the Dargah Hazrath Hussain Shah Ali.
Mahmood Ali, counsel for LHTPL, appearing before the presiding officer of the tribunal maintained that his client had bought the land in an open auction for the purpose of developing and selling residential and commercial spaces by depositing a certain amount with the government. He also claimed that the property did not belong to the Dargah as after the Jagir Abolition Act, it was inherited by the state government. He requested the presiding officer to vacate the order since his company was unable to sell and transfer the ownership of the structures it has built on that property.
Syed Abdul Ghaffar, the counsel for the dargah managing committee, traced the history of wakf property and said that it was given to the Dargah during the reign of the Sixth Nizam Mir Mahboob Ali Khan. Clearing a technical problem which had cropped up, the Seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, through a firman restored it as wakf to the Dargah. He also quoted a Gazette notification of 1989 about the property in support of his argument.
Shafeeq Rahman Mahajir, counsel for SWB, supported the position taken by Abdul Ghaffar and elaborated in detail how the contention of LHTPL was "not maintainable."
Since the companies who reportedly bought land from the government happen to be leading industry players and institutions such as Emaar Properties, Emaar Hills Township, Boulder Hills Leisure, Microsoft India, Infosys Technology, Wipro, VJIL Consulting Ltd, Polaris Software Lab, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Indian School of Business, Deloitte, Gold Edge Green Living, and Phoenix Living Space. The Dargah committee has also made the state government and the APIIC respondents in the case.