HYDERABAD: In a major relief to the Telangana government, the Supreme Court on Monday, has ruled in its favor in the case related to the Manikonda Jagir lands in Hyderabad. The Supreme Court has clarified that 1,654 acres 32 Guntas of land belong to the Government of Telangana. With this, lands worth thousands of crores where many prime residential and commercial properties including Lanco Hills, Indian Scholl of Business, Microsoft, etc which were part of the Manikonda Jagir land case pending in the Supreme Court since 2016 has been resolved. With the latest 152-page judgment The 156-pages judgment of Justices Hemant Gupta and Rama Subramanian ruled that all rights over the entire land belong to the Telangana government.

The ruling has put an end to the controversy between the government and the Waqf Board on who should own the title over a prime land of 1,654 acres claimed both by the Manikonda dargah supported by the Waqf board and Waqf tribunal on one side and by the state and its allottees like Lanco Hills, Emaar properties, Indian School of Business (ISB), etc. on the other side.

The major contention was that if the Waqf board won the case the State would be under a heavy obligation to pay Rs 50,000 crore to as compensation

Waqf board had earlier declared all 1,654 acres as dargah land in 2006 became the bone of contention while the state said that Dargah Hazrat Hussain Shah Vali, owned only one acre and not 1,654 acres. Arguments were held in the AP High Court between the Waqf board and the state government in this regard. On April 3, 2012, the High Court ruled in favor of the Waqf Board.

However, the government has approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court judgment. The Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the High Court in the past in the matter of these lands.

Rejecting the High Court judgment the Apex Court stated that all rights over the entire land belong to the Telangana government finally putting an end to the matter after a decade of litigation.

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