Telangana High Court Rejects Plea To Exclude Land From Reserved Forest Notification, Cites SC Ruling On Salar Jung Estate

The Telangana High Court has dismissed a writ petition seeking release of land in Ranga Reddy District from the proposed reserved forest notification, referring to Supreme Court's judgment which had held that this land belonged to the Government and proposal for final notification under the Telangana Forest Act was validly initiated.Notably in December last year the Supreme Court in State of Telangana, represented by Forest Divisional Officer v. Mir Jaffar Ali Khan (dead), through LRs and others had upheld rights of the forest department over 102 acres of land in the same district and had rejected the ownership claims made by alleged successors in-interest of Salar Jung-III, including the Claimants before it. Notably, Salar Jung-III had served as the Prime Minister of Hyderabad Deccan during the reign of the Nizam–Mir Osman Ali Khan.A Division Bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar noted that the petitioners had sought exclusion of their land from the reserve forest proposal by relying on their alleged title through the Salar Jung Estate and on an earlier judgment of the erstwhile High Court. The Bench, however, held that the matter is squarely covered by the Supreme Court's decision in , where the apex court rejected a similar claim over the very same subject land."A perusal of the above said decision clearly shows that the Hon'ble Supreme Court has conclusively decided the issue with respect to Sy.No.201/1 of Gurramguda Forest Block, Hayathnagar Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, which is the subject matter of the present writ petition, and confirmed the orders dated 15.10.2014 of the Forest Settlement Officer made under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act by setting aside the order dated 20.01.2023 passed by this Court in C.R.P.No.417 of 2017 and allowed the Civil Appeal. In view of the authoritative pronouncement by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No.9996 of 2025, which squarely covers the present writ petition, the relief sought in this writ petition is devoid of merits and fails". The petitioners claimed ownership and possession over a land in Sahebnagar Kalan Village, Hayathnagar Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, tracing their rights to a preliminary decree passed in a 1958 suit concerning partition of the estate of Nawab Salar Jung III. According to them, the land was part of private self-purchased Maqtas of late Salar Jung Bahadur, had been released from Jagir administration, and was never Government land. They challenged the respondents' refusal to release the land from the proposed reserve forest notification, particularly the Memo dated 04.08.2005 issued by the District Collector.The Forest Department and the District Collector opposed the writ petition, contending that the land was recorded as Kancha Sarkari or poramboke Government land in revenue records, and that part of it had long ago been proposed for constitution of a "reserve forest". The State also argued that the compromise decree in the 1958 civil suit was between private parties and did not bind the Government.Importantly, during hearing, the State placed reliance on the Supreme Court's judgment dated 18.12.2025 in Civil Appeal No.9996 of 2025, arising out of connected litigation concerning the same survey number and forest block. In that decision, the Supreme Court held that the claim of title through the sale deed, release orders and proceedings of the Nizam Atiyat Court did not establish that the subject land was self-acquired property of Salar Jung III. The apex court further held that the claim failed, that the land was Government land, and that the proposals for final notification under Section 15 of the Telangana Forest Act had been validly instituted.Quoting the Supreme Court's findings, the High Court noted that the claim over the subject matter had already been rejected and that the impugned earlier orders which had favoured the claimants had been set aside. The Supreme Court had also directed the Chief Secretary of Telangana, to ensure completion of the pending proposals under Section 15 of the Telangana Forest Act for including the subject matter as reserved forest within eight weeks.In view of that authoritative pronouncement, the High Court held that the relief sought in the present writ petition was devoid of merit and could not survive. The writ petition was accordingly dismissed.Case Title: Baqtawar Begum & 11 others v. Government of Andhra Pradesh & 9 othersCase No.: W.P. No.19942 of 2005Appearance: None appeared for the petitioners; Mr. Mohd. Imran Khan, learned Additional Advocate General, for the State.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Telangana High Court Rejects Plea To Exclude Land From Reserved Forest Notification, Cites SC Ruling On Salar Jung Estate

Ananya Tangri

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