Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court directed the state forest department not to evict Guttikoya tribals in the Thadvai forests of Jayashankar-Bhupalpally district.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice M. Ganga Rao was dealing with a PIL by the Civil Liberties Committee (CLC) challenging the alleged illegal demolition of houses, a school and removal of a borewell apart from damaging the crops belonging to the tribals.
The CLC, represented by its joint secretary Dr Gunti Ravinder, told the court that about 200 forest personnel on September 16 and razed all 36 houses and a school in Jalagalancha using two JCBs, tractors and bulldozers.
Mr V. Raghunath, counsel for the petitioner, said the tribals were living in the village for 18 years and had Aadhaar, ration and voter identity cards.
He said that when the residents, including women, protested the highhandedness of the forest personnel, they were bound to tress and flogged. Several villagers sustained injuries, he said.
He urged the court to protect the rights of tribals besides issuing a direction to registere criminal cases against the forest personnel.
Admitting the petition, the bench directed the authorities not to remove the tribals and immediately provide them drinking water.
It issued notices directing the respondents to file counter affidavits within three weeks.
TS request to lift NGT stay put off
The TS government asked the Hyderabad High Court to take up hearing of its plea to vacate a stay granted by the National Green Tribunal at Delhi on the construction of the Kaleswaram lift irrigation scheme.
Advocate-General D. Prakash Reddy told a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G. Ganga Rao that the NGT had issued the interim stay in a hurried manner, asking the government to stop work till it obtained environmental clearances.
He said that the government had told the NGT that the work underway at the project related to the drinking water component, and there was no need for environmental clearances for the work.
The bench asked how it could stay the NGT order without seeing it. Mr Prakash Reddy said they couldn’t get the order copy due to the holidays. At this, the bench said it would hear the case after the lunch session if the government could produce the order.
As the government was unable to get the copy, the bench said it would hear the case later.
