A VENUGOPAL Vs. STATE OF TELANGANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner assails the proceedings dated 31.05.2018 of the Executive Engineer (HG), North Division, Telangana Housing Board (for brevity, 'the Board') (signed by the Vice-Chairman & Housing Commissioner, Telangana Housing Board, Hyderabad), confirming his earlier proceedings dated 03.12.2014 and 18.05.2017 and rejecting the request of the petitioner for transfer and registration of the house bearing No.130/SRT at Sanjeevareddy Nagar, Hyderabad, in his name. A consequential direction is sought to the Board to do so.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is as follows: A.Venkaiah @ Hanumaiah, s/o. Balaiah, was his paternal grandfather and he hailed from Sadasivpet near Zaheerabad in Sangareddy District. He applied for allotment of a house on rental basis on 17.05.1968 and the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Housing Board allotted him the house bearing No.130/SRT, Sanjeevareddy Nagar, Hyderabad, on rental basis. While so, A.Venkaiah @ Hanumaiah died on 16.09.1969. A.Shankaraiah, the father of the petitioner, was the sole legal heir of A.Venkaiah @ Hanumaiah as his wife had already died. A.Shankaraiah submitted representation dated 16.12.1969 to the erstwhile Board seeking transfer of the tenancy over the subject house to himself. The erstwhile Board directed him to submit certain documents and upon due compliance, the tenancy over the house was transferred in his favour under proceedings dated 14.04.1970. The petitioner claims that at that time itself, his father had shown his grandfather's name wrongly as 'A.Yenkaiah' but no fault was found with this discrepancy by the erstwhile Board during the lifetime of his father. The erstwhile Board then issued a notice in October, 1977, offering the subject house property for outright sale on hire purchase basis. The petitioner states that his father opted for such hire purchase and the erstwhile Board converted the tenancy into a hire purchase arrangement. The petitioner asserts that his father paid the equated monthly instalments regularly up to March, 1992, that being the last instalment payable under the hire purchase arrangement. However, his father died on 20.04.1992 before registration of the house could be effected in his name. Upon the death of his father, the petitioner submitted an application along with a death certificate seeking transfer of the allotment in his favour. In the said death certificate, the petitioner's grandfather's name was shown as 'Hanumaiah'. The erstwhile Board asked for a legal heir certificate which was also submitted but no action was taken thereafter.

(3.) It appears that there was some litigation between the family members of the petitioner in relation to this house property which ultimately ended in a compromise before the Lok Adalat, whereby the sisters of the petitioner agreed for monetary settlement of their claims. They also expressed that they had no objection to the registration of the house in favour of the petitioner under letter dated 16.07.2016 addressed to the Board. The petitioner had also submitted affidavit dated 06.07.2015 stating that the name of his father's father was 'Venkaiah' but he was also called 'Yenkaiah' and 'Hanumaiah'. This affidavit was attested by the learned IV Special Metropolitan Magistrate, Cyberabad, Kukatpally. However, the Executive Engineer, (HG), North Division of the Board, rejected his request for transfer of the house, vide proceedings dated 03.12.2014, on the ground that his father had played a fraud. Thereafter, the Executive Engineer reiterated this rejection in his proceedings dated 18.05.2017 and 31.05.2018. The petitioner asserts that at no point of time did any other party raise a claim and the Board itself corresponded with his father, during his lifetime, and thereafter, with him, and therefore, the question of any fraud having been committed by his father in relation to the allotment did not arise. It is in these circumstances that he assails the rejection proceedings and seeks a consequential direction to transfer the subject house property in his name.