SC gives verdict in 50-year-old case

New Delhi, Nov 8: The Supreme Court has rung the curtains down on a case spread over half a century on completion of six rounds of litigation, ruling in favour of the owner of a property given to her by the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad in 1946 and disputed by the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The property was given to the respondent, Pramila Modi, by the Nizam before the city of Hyderabad attained independence.

A bench, comprising Justice A R Lakshmanan and Tarun Chatterjee, said the map produced by the state of Andhra Pradesh was unauthenticated and fabricated in order to get Ms Modi declared a landgrabber.

Thw apex court, while dismissing the appeal of Andhra Pradesh on October 30, 2006 ruled, that ''therefore after such a long time, it is not open to the government to reagitate the same issue, both on the principles of resjudicata and estoppel. The matters which were concluded by the decisions of the competent statutary authorities can not be reopened and a citizen can not be subjected to repeated litigations. Therefore, the issue of the physical location, raised by the government for the first time before this court by filing a fabricated and unauthenticated sketch which has no basis whatsover with regard to the location of the land belonging to Ms Modi, is not admissible.'' ''As already noticed, the parties are litigating for the last fifty years and it is high time the parties realised the correct fact situation and closed the lis once and for all,'' the court added.

The dispute was regarding land, measuring three acres and 27 guntas, in Khairatabad village in Hyderabad district of Andhra Pradesh.

UNI