The Telangana High Court last week dismissed a writ petition filed by residents of Gudur and Ayodhyapuram revenue villages who challenged their status as Scheduled Areas, saying the plea was filed after 75 years, “that too without challenging the Presidential Notification (Part-B States) Order 1950.
The petitioners argued that the villages located in the Gudur Mandal of the Mahabubabad district were not notified in the Presidential Notification of 1950 and were, therefore, illegally designated as Scheduled Areas.
In his judgment on November 20, Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka noted that the cause of action arose in 1950. “Petitioners, under the guise of spelling mistakes in the Presidential Order, cannot now be permitted after lapse of 75 long years to agitate that the two villages in question are to be treated as non-scheduled area villages,” the judgment stated.
The petitioners Kathi Swamy and others, whose families have been residing in these villages for over 100 years, contended that neither the Scheduled Areas (Part-B States) Order of 1950 nor subsequent notifications ever officially declared the villages as Scheduled Areas. They claimed they were not allowed to register or contest in local body and Zilla Parishad elections.
In their counter, the respondents, including the Mahabubabad district collector, rebutted the claim, arguing that the petition was based on a “typographical mistake.” According to the collector, the erstwhile Hyderabad State Government had included the villages in the Tribal Areas Notification, 1949, where Gudur was listed as ‘Goarur’ and Ayodhyapuram as ‘Radhiapur’.
He further confirmed that the 1950 Presidential Order was issued based on this 1949 notification, and efforts to correct the misspellings were documented in 1978.
Justice Bheemapaka, while delivering the verdict, rejected the petitioners’ attempt to use these clerical errors to overturn the long-standing status of the villages. The court stated that basing a claim on “mere clerical/spelling mistakes, which are curable defects, it cannot be said that two villages in question are not included in the 1950 Order and no relief as sought for in this writ petition can be given.”
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The court found the petition defective, pointing out that petitioners “have not chosen to challenge Presidential Notification (Part-B States) Order 1950 dated 07.12.1950 in this Writ Petition. Without challenging the said 1950 Order, they are not entitled to pray for a declaration that ‘Gudur’ and ‘Ayodhyapur’ revenue villages are non-Scheduled Areas.”
“Right from the Scheduled Area Declaration by the Union Government, the primitive Tribal Groups/Tribal Groups dwelling in this area are rest assured to dwell in their place without fear,” said the court.
The judge ruled that the writ petition is “hit by delay and laches,” and dismissed it with no costs.
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