The political dispute over 550 acres of land in Miyapur, Hyderabad, has intensified after former Telangana minister T. Harish Rao rejected Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s claim that the previous BRS government colluded with private entities to acquire the land, and questioned the proposed sale of the property after a Supreme Court verdict.
Harish Rao, who is also the BRS Assembly deputy floor leader, said the Supreme Court records would show that the BRS government, led at the time by then-Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, had fought an eight-year legal battle between 2015 and 2023 to protect the land. His remarks were reported by Deccan Chronicle.
According to Harish Rao, the then Telangana government appointed senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan on April 7, 2015, to represent the state in the Supreme Court and contest claims made by private parties. He said documentary evidence establishing government ownership was presented during the BRS government’s tenure.
The dispute came into sharper focus after the Supreme Court declared the disputed Miyapur land to be government property, according to the report. Harish Rao said the judgment relied on legal principles discussed in the court’s June 15, 2023, decision in the Trinity Infraventures Ltd v. M.S. Murthy case.
Harish Rao also disputed the Chief Minister’s claim that the Congress government’s efforts led to the Supreme Court decision and that private parties’ claims were rejected because of the current administration’s intervention. The competing claims point to a wider disagreement over which government should receive political credit for the legal outcome and how the land should be managed now that its ownership has been settled by the court.
The next point of contention is the proposed disposal of the land. Harish Rao criticised Revanth Reddy for proposing to sell the Miyapur property within 24 hours of the Supreme Court verdict. He questioned whether a large public asset should be sold immediately or preserved for future public requirements.
Harish Rao said Revanth Reddy had valued the 550 acres at more than Rs 60,000 crore. He alleged that the Congress government was preparing to sell the land to entities linked to the Chief Minister, an allegation contained in his statement and not independently established in the supplied report.
The Miyapur dispute therefore now involves two separate questions: the legal history of the land and the administrative decision on its future use. The supplied report does not provide details of a sale notification, auction process, land-use plan or formal government decision setting out how the property will be disposed of. The immediate next steps will depend on the Telangana government’s stated plan for the land and any further clarification on the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict.
