Telangana High Court red flags Telangana over Errum Manzil plans

Hyderabad: Refusing to issue a stay or order status quo on the decision of the TS government to demolish the Errum Manzil, the Telangana High Court told the state government orally on Monday that it should not go forward with the demolition of the 150-year-old palace until the adjudication of the cases before it.

Citing Supreme Court observations and judgements which clearly mention that no action can be taken on issues which are in the court, or sub-judice, the High Court  commented that it expected the government to respect this.

It directed the additional advocate-general J. Ramchander Rao to remind the government that it should not go further on this issue till the finalisation of the matter.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther was dealing with four petitions seeking to restrain the government from demolishing Errum Manzil. The bench said that government should not take any adverse steps until the issue was adjudicated upon.

Justice Chauhan direc-ted Mr Ramchander Rao to inform the state government about the procedure. The bench refu-sed to give 15 days to the government to submit its stand and adjourned the case to July 10 for further hearing.

Mr Chikkudu Prabhakar, counsel for Prof. P.L. Vishveshwar Rao, in a PIL challenging the demolition of Errum Manzil, put forth the submission that as per the AP Re-organisation Act, 2014, Hyderabad city is a common capital for Telang-ana and Andhra Pradesh and the common Governor of both Telugu states was empowered to take a decision on major issues whereas, on this issue, the Cabinet had taken the decision to demolish it.

Meanwhile, Noori Muzaffar Hussain and seven others, who claim to be the legal heirs of Nawab Safdar Jung Musheer-ud-daula Fakrul Mulk, who built Errum Manzil, filed a writ petition before the High Court, seeking a direction to the state government not to demolish the structure.

The petitioners contended that the palace was built in 1870 and a civil dispute had been pending in the court.

They submitted that the erstwhile government had taken possession of 1 acre 21 guntas of excess land from the Nawab, which still exists in the hilly area of Errum Manzil. This parcel of land has to be legally allocated to the legal heirs.

The petitioners sought a direction to call for records pertaining to the civil dispute No 9/1 of 1951 so as to get clarity on the land which still has to be allotted to the legal heirs.