1 week Ago By TG Naidu
HYDERABAD: A dispute over a tract of land located in Shamshabad and worth a whopping `500 crore took an unexpected and disturbing turn on Friday when the Telangana High Court discovered the use of forged judicial orders in an attempt to influence legal proceedings.The case surfaced during the hearing of a Civil Miscellaneous Appeal filed by the HMDA, which contested land ownership claims made by one Md Taher Khan, a resident of Jahanuma. Taher Khan claimed possession over 49 acres of land in Shamshabad where property prices have spiked.
During a routine hearing, a bench of Justice T Vinod Kumar and Justice P Sree Sudha flagged inconsistencies in two court orders submitted by Taher Khan.One was allegedly issued on April 29, 1988, in Application No. 533 of 1988, tied to Civil Suit No.
7 of 1958. The other was linked to a writ petition (No. 28734 of 1996).
Suspicions around these documents led the bench to order an internal inquiry on March 7, 2025. The Registrar (Judicial-I), tasked with verifying the documents, submitted a sealed report to the court on March 27. What followed in open court was the unravelling of a deception.
The report noted that Justice ND Patnaik — said to have passed the 1988 order — had only been appointed to the court in December that same year, months after the supposed order was dated. State urged to set up SIT, probe forgeriesEven more striking was the revelation that the 1996 writ petition had never been registered in court records. Both documents were fabricated and the implications were immediate.
The bench concluded that the forged orders were used to mislead judicial authorities and gain control over disputed land. The court directed the Registrar to file a formal police complaint and called for a full investigation to determine who was behind the forgeries. Citing the seriousness of the case, the court recommended that the state government establish a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The SIT would also examine two earlier cases — FIR Nos. 43/2024 and 176/2024 — already under investigation at the Charminar PS.To prevent the spread of the false documents, the bench instructed the Registrar to obtain clearance from the Acting Chief Justice to issue a circular warning authorities not to rely on the forged orders.
The circular is to be published on the High Court’s website.The court, meanwhile, ordered status quo on the disputed land. Both parties may seek a fresh hearing based on the progress of the investigation.
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