HC Summons Survey Maps in the Lake View Case

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to produce two reports, of the survey of lands involving Lake View Guest House, at Begumpet in the city. The bench of Justice T. Vinod Kumar and Justice Pulla Karthik was hearing two appeals filed by the government challenging an order, in writ petitions, directing the government not to interfere with the lands claimed by Dr Chandra Rekha Vig and Rajesh Jain. When the bench probed into why the government was shy of moving the civil court, the Advocate General said that precious public land was being grabbed and encroached upon.

Senior Counsel L. Ravichander immediately retorted that referring to the original owners of the lands as land-grabbers was unfair "more so when the government is facing multiple cases in PILs complaining of turning a blind eye to land grabbers and encroachers".

Earlier, in his argument, Advocate General B.S. Prasad pointed out that a
similar relief plea was rejected by the High Court, with advice to adjudicate by the Civil Court. The petitioner cannot now be permitted to raise the issue again, he said. The Advocate General also argued that the non-clarity of real land cannot be made into a writ petition. Senior Counsel J. Prabhakar pointed out how the government attempted to dub the writ petitioners as land grabbers and sought that the case be dismissed.

The court wanted two survey maps, one made during the proceedings in the
land grabbing court and another survey conducted by the deputy director in
2001, and posted it for Thursday.