Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh govt on Monday staked claim to an over Rs 4,000-crore worth land parcel in Kondapur, challenging Telangana’s right to allocate it to a private party. In its counter filed in the Telangana high court, the AP govt stated that the 42.03-acre prime property was allotted by it to the Kurnool-based Bhagawan Sri Balasaibaba Central Trust in 2005 and is still under the control of the state’s endowments department.It rejected Telangana’s right over any part of the property.This heated legal tussle over the high-value land — sitting in the heart of Hyderabad’s IT corridor — started in 2024 when a group of private individuals filed over 20 petitions in the high court challenging the transfer of 42.03 acres, belonging to the Balasaibaba Trust to Bhupati Estates.During the last hearing of the case on Dec 16, 2025, the high court directed both govts to file their counters.While Telangana is yet to file a counter despite court giving it the “last chance” — subject to payment of Rs 5,000 per petition as fine to the Telangana State Legal Services Authority — AP has filed its counter claiming that the former discreetly included the name of Bhupati Estates in the revenue records in 2023, instead of the trust, without informing them.According to AP, the land was regularised in the name of the trust in 2005 under the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) Act. But after Balasaibaba’s death in 2018, the land was brought under the control of the AP endowments department and has since remained with it. The dept has been managing the land and taking measures to protect it.Citing rules of the Land Ceiling Act in its counter, AP dismissed Telangana’s right to transfer the land to private entities or individuals and also produced a letter from the trust’s managing trustee stating that the trust land came under the purview of the AP endowments dept.The counter stated that Telangana’s own orders too showed that the land belonged to the trust registered under the Andhra Pradesh Act and, therefore, the management belonged to AP endowments. “Endowments land cannot not be handed to private individuals without high court approval,” AP said.
