HC strikes down 2 GOs, says govt cannot take away orphanage land

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday struck down two GOs (No 48 and 50) issued by the state government in August allotting 10 acres of Victoria Memorial Home to Rachakonda police commissionerate on an 11-year lease for constructing its headquarters.
The building along with 69 acres of land was given by the sixth Nizam who named it after Queen Victoria and set up an orphanage and a school in 1903.In 1959, it was registered as a charitable endowment. Giving a ruling that this comes under a private endowment charitable trust, the bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G Shyam Prasad said that state has no power to deal with the properties of such private trusts. "You can acquire the land under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act if you want it," the bench said in its judgment delivered following a public interest petition filed by old students of the school and home who want the court to protect the valuable property meant for the poor and destitutes. Referring to the records, the bench said that the authorities had earlier decided to take the 10-acre piece for Rs 11 crore per annum and now they took it away for a mere Rs 65 lakh per annum, the HC bench observed.
Upon being told that the social welfare department officials are acting as trustees, the bench wondered as to how they have become trustees and sought to know whether any of the founder's kin were made trustees. State counsel Sanjeev Kumar said that a woman from the founder's family was a trustee. "Since the home has no money, you started funding and later took over the trust in a surreptitious manner. You cannot take it over this way and the law guiding the charitable endowments such as this do not permit you to do so," the bench said. However, it has a word of appreciation for the authorities for preserving the home all these years. "Otherwise it would not have remained the way it is today." But that does not confer any power on you," it said. The bench said that beyond five years, the state has no power to lease out the land.