The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) appealed against a Single Judge order that set aside HMDA's rejection of Sri Manorupa Meadows Pvt. Ltd.'s request to avail benefits under G.O.Ms.No.527 dated 31.07.2008. The respondent company had obtained a tentative draft layout approval in 2007 and had surrendered land via a registered Gift Deed to HADA for HADA area and EWS/LIG housing purposes before G.O.Ms.No.527 was issued; they later sought to pay 1.5 times the basic value in lieu of the surrendered land under the new G.O. HMDA rejected the request on the ground that the layout was sanctioned before G.O.Ms.No.527 was issued, but the Single Judge held the G.O. was clarificatory and retrospective in operation, setting aside the rejection and directing HMDA to consider the respondents' case under the G.O. HMDA's appeal before the Division Bench challenges this finding, arguing that G.O.Ms.No.527 is subordinate legislation operative only prospectively, that rights were crystallised upon execution of the Gift Deed, and that the G.O. represented a substantive policy change rather than a clarification.