Taking a serious view of HYDRAA’s action on encroachments and illegal structures, Telangana high court Monday wondered whether the commissioner of this new entity would demolish even the high court building going by what a local tahsildar tells him to do so.
Finding fault with the recent demolition of a structure at Kistareddypet in Ameenpur, Justice K Lakshman advised HYDRAA commissioner AV Ranganath not to try to “please his political bosses”.
The judge asked Ranganath how did he allow the demolition work on a Sunday in contravention of a full bench judgment that said there should not be any demolitions on holidays and after sunset on working days. “Just because Ameenpur tahsildar requested you, you allowed this demolition without verifying the contents of the issue and the orders of the court. Will you also demolish the high court if Charminar tahsildar sends a similar request to you?” the judge asked.
Ranganath appeared online before the court, while Ameenpur tahsildar P Radha appeared in person and tried to defend the Sept 22 demolition of a building raised by Mohammed Rafi and N Venkat Reddy of Ganesh Constructions on a 270 square yard plot in Kistareddypet.
When Ranganath brought to the notice of the court that sale transactions were happening unchecked even after the permissions to raise structures had been withdrawn, the judge told him that nobody stopped them from sealing such buildings.
The HC termed the demolition of the building at Ameenpur demolition as a clear violation of law.
Follow due process against wrong-doers: HC to HYDRAA
They can write to the sub-registrars in this regard. There are petitions pending before me that questioned the very formation of HYDRAA. If things continue like this, I may have to suspend the GO (No. 99) that paved the way for the emergence of HYDRAA,” Justice Lakshman warned.
While terming the Ameenpur demolition as a clear violation of law, the judge said in the current case, there was a Sept 5 order from the court asking the authorities to follow the due process of law.
Maintaining that the court was not against the exercise, Justice Lakshman, however, stressed that due process of law should be followed even for penal action against wrong-doers. counters from both HYDRAA commissioner and tahsildar and posted the case to Oct 15. “Maintain the status quo till then in respect of this land,” he said.
The judge was upset as his previous protection order in respect of the building was not taken into account and directed Ranganath and Radha to appear before the court to explain their actions. While the officials contended that the land is actually a govt land in survey number 164, the building owners claimed that the land in question is in survey number 165, which has private land. The judge said the officials issued notices to the owners in April and obtained explanations in the same month. But they waited for five months to pass aspeaking order that rejected the claims of the petitioners and declared it as a govt land. Consequently, permissiongiven by the gram panchayat for raising the structure was withdrawn and the building was declared illegal.
“We received a request from tahsildar on Sept 21 and accordingly, we provided men
and machinery for bringing down the structure,” Ranganath informed the judge.
Meanwhile, Justice K Lakshman addressed a separate lunch motion plea, instructing the state to adhere to the law regarding its Musi plan. Petitioners raised concerns over red markings along the Musi route. Additional AG Tera Rajanikanth Reddy assured the court that the state would proceed only
after consulting with affected parties and would avoid any hasty actions.