PIL Challenges Constitutional Validity of Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbook Act 2020

HYDERABAD: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the constitutional validity of the new Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbook Act, 2020, was filed in the High Court on Wednesday.

The PIL filed by Congress leader C. Damodara Rajanarsimha challenged the legal validity of several provisions of its new land law.

Contentions raised in the  PIL about the new Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbook Act, 2020 are:

-Infringes upon Article 14 of the fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution.

 - There is no provision for mutating the names of the Pattadars who acquired rights by way of ORC, 38-E certificate under Section 5 (1) of the Tenancy Act, and other modes of acquisition.

- The main contention is that the State while providing for cancellation of fraudulent issuance of passbook in respect of government land, has not provided for any mechanism in respect of fraudulent issuance of passbook of private lands.

- Section 5 of the Act doesn’t provide for registering any other document other than sale, gift, mortgage or exchange deed in respect of agricultural land.

- The Tahsildar can be suspended and punished if s/he allows any wrong entries in the record of rights by unduly conferring rights to private persons on government land.

-Any person who intends to transfer or obtain an interest in land by way of sale, gift, mortgage or exchange under a registered document shall apply, through the website prescribed for this purpose, to the registrar for allotting available date and time to present the document as per the convenience of the person.

-If any wrong entry is made in the records, there should be a provision that enables the aggrieved to challenge the error, which is lacking in the new law, the PIL stated.

A division bench of the Telangana HC comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice A. Rajshekar Reddy on Thursday, issued notices to Telangana Chief secretary, the Telangana government, Principal Secretary, the Revenue Department, and also Chief Commissioner of Land administration, seeking its explanation in the case.