Hyderabad: Telangana high court has dismissed an appeal in a decades-old property dispute, upholding trial court’s decision to reject the appellants’ suit over 1,000 square yards of land and structures at a prime location in Metpally town of Jagtial district.
The appeal was filed challenging a 1999 judgment of the senior civil judge, Jagtial, in a suit filed by them in 1990. The land was initially owned by one Admala Laxma Reddy, who, through a registered will before his death in 1990, founded a charitable trust for providing education and medical aid to the poor. The court held that the Endowments Act did not bar the civil suit, as the Endowments Tribunal was created only in 2007.
It found Chandramma’s claim of exclusive ownership of a lodge, which was one of the properties, was unproved and said the plaintiffs had not shown the other properties were joint family assets. The plaintiffs — Laxma Reddy’s wife Chandramma and their adopted son — sought a declaration of title, possession and an injunction over the properties, and contended that the properties were joint family assets that Reddy could not bequeath. It held the will valid, with no proof of coercion or undue influence. Despite a handwriting expert’s opinion supporting the signature, the court found the revocation deed not properly proved. With the trial court records not being destroyed, high court relied on copies and the trial judgment, and delivered the verdict.
Confirming endowments department’s ownership of the land parcel, Justice S Chalapathi Rao ruled that the dispute over ownership of the land was maintainable before the competent civil court, but the family members, including the landowner’s wife and adopted son, had failed to establish their rights over the disputed property.