Time sought on High Court split

Hyderabad: A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday granted time till Tuesday to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state governments and the Centre to file counter-affidavits on a petition seeking division of the High Court.

T. Dhangopal Rao, a practising advocate of the High Court as a party in person moved a PIL seeking to direct both the governments to give concurrence for the constitution of separate high courts for both the states in view of the announcement of the Union law minister that delay in the division was due to non-concurrence of Chief Ministers of AP and Telangana states.

It may be recalled that the bench on Monday had announced that it will hear the plea on a day-to-day basis from Thursday and directed both the government and the Centre to file counter-affidavits.

HC fumes at Civic body

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday once again fumed at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for indulging in coercive action in collecting property tax from alleged defaulters.

While dealing with two petitions by residents of the city challenging the action of the GHMC in disconnecting water and electricity connections to their premises, the bench sarcastically said, “The GHMC commissioner is behaving like a monarch and acting as if he is the Nizam of Hyderabad.”

The bench pointed out with GHMC’s counsel "whether the civic body's chief is aware that his own corporation’s Act that does not support his actions”.

The bench said, “The GHMC does not  supply water and electricity to the households. It has nothing to do with sewage and drains. It only collects garbage from the houses. How can the GHMC disconnect the services that you don't offer?

The bench cautioned that if the GHMC continues to indulge in such actions then serious consequences would follow.

HC orders TS to survey land

The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed the Telangana state government to survey the land allotted to M/s Road Tech Pvt Ltd owned by D.K. Snigdha Reddy, daughter of former minister and Congress MLA D.K. Aruna, for stone quarrying at Mannapur village of Mahbubnagar district, in her presence.

Counsel representing Ms Snigdha Reddy submitted an affidavit before the court, pursuant to its earlier direction, stating that his client has been undertaking quarrying operations in the area allotted to her and termed the allegations as baseless.

A division bench comprising Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice A. Ramalingeswara Rao was passing the interim orders in a PIL by B. Krishna Mohan Reddy, ex-ZPTC member of the district, alleging that the company has been carrying out illegal crushing operations.

After perusing the affidavit, the bench directed that officials of survey and land records shall take steps to conduct survey and adjourned the case to April 15.

HC asks SBI for APSCHE records

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed officers of the State Bank of Hyderabad to produce records of account belonging to the AP Sate Council for Higher Education (APSCHE).

While hearing petitions by the APSCHE and Telangana state government with regard to the utilisation of funds of the Council, the bench wanted to ascertain that authorised officers operate the account. The APSCHE has moved the petition challenging the action of the SBH in freezing its account in Shantinagar branch alleging that the bank freezes its account at the behest of the Telangana government. The TS government filed the petition seeking to restrain the AP government and the APSCHE from operating or withdrawing any amount from the bank in respect of the institutions specified in the Tenth Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act.

The bench posted the matter to Tuesday for further hearing.

AP says won’t touch farm lands

The AP government on Thursday submitted before the Hyderabad High Court that it will not touch lands of farmers who gave their consent for the pooling scheme to build the new capital until it entered into an agreement.

AP additional advocate-general Dammalpati Srinivasa Rao submitted before Justice A. Rajasekhar Reddy that the authorities have been initiating steps in accordance with provisions of the Capital Region Development Authority Act and the AP Capital City Land Pooling Scheme (Formulation and Implementation) Rules, 2015. The judge was hearing two petitions. B. Hanumantha Rao, a farmer of Malkapuram village in Tulluru mandal sougt to direct the deputy collector and competent authority for land acquisition not to interfere with his possession and enjoyment of seven acres for which he had given consent under the land pooling scheme. Another petition was moved by farmers who were not willing to part with their land under the scheme. The matter was posted for hearing after two weeks.