Stop harping on ‘heritage’ tag of Errum Manzil: Telangana high court

Hyderabad: Asking counsels not to repeat their contention that Errum Manzil is a heritage structure and should therefore not be demolished, the Telangana High Court said that each counsel representing individual petitioners was being given considerable time to present their submissions. This will continue until the completion of the arguments in the PILs challenging the impending demolition of Errum Manzil, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akhter said.

The bench was dealing with six petitions including the public interest litigations challenging the demolition of Errum Manzil. The bench observed that the repeated contentions of the petitioners and their counsels that Errum Manzil should not be demolished because it is a heritage structure was like riding a dead horse, as the recent notification of heritage structures did not contain the palace.

Counsels for the petitioners Ms Rachana Reddy, Mr Vijay, and Mr Ramakanth Reddy submitted that the Telangana government deliberately deleted Regulation No. 13 through the GO.Ms.No. 183 on December 7, 2015, which resulted in Errum Manzil being removed from the list of the heritage buildings. Counsels submitted that the building was included in the heritage list 18 years ago by the erstwhile Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda).

Pointing out their contention that Regulation No.13 of the Huda Zoning Regulations had been repealed by the state government, Justice Chauhan asked counsels how the court could interfere with a GO through which the regulation has been deleted.

While reacting to the redundant submissions of counsels representing the petitioners, the Chief Justice observed that in the writ jurisdiction the courts have very limited jurisdiction and cannot ask the Telangana government to justify their decision of removing Regulation No.13. The cases were adjourned to Thursday for further hearing.