Karnataka HC Quashes PTCL Land-Sale Permission Granted While Its Stay In Related Proceedings Was In Force

The subject land was granted in 1963 and sold under a registered sale deed in 1972. Resumption proceedings under the PTCL Act were initiated in 2005; the Assistant Commissioner dismissed the petition, but the Deputy Commissioner reversed that decision. The purchaser challenged the Deputy Commissioner’s order in W.P. No. 10031/2021, in which this Court granted an interim stay on 16 June 2021. While that stay was in force, the Government granted permission to alienate the land on 20 September 2022. The grantee’s family subsequently sold the property to Sri M. Srinivas on 17 October 2023. The present petition challenged the permission recorded in the Deputy Commissioner’s Official Memorandum dated 20 September 2022.

The Court relied on the principle that an administrative decision concerning property cannot be sustained where it is made without due regard to a subsisting judicial interim order and pending proceedings.

Although the dispute arose in the context of the PTCL Act, the order identifies no specific statutory provision or judicial precedent as the basis for its decision.

When permission to alienate the property was considered, the interim stay in W.P. No. 10031/2021 remained operative, and the matter was still pending adjudication.

The Court held that the Government had failed to give due regard to both circumstances; consequently, the permission was issued without proper consideration of the subsisting judicial order and could not be sustained.

Any interim order in the present petition stood discharged, and pending interlocutory applications were disposed of.