Hyderabad: The High Court on Wednesday directed the state government against delaying its response to a public interest litigation (PIL), which challenged government orders to regularise the encroachment of government land.
The PIL filed against GO 59 has been pending since 2015, as not to make any delay in filing its contentions regarding the issuance on December 14, 2014, the state government issued a GO (No. 59) to regularise the encroached government lands in the names of persons who were in possession of such land on June 2, 2014.
Though the GO 59 of 2014 was challenged through a PIL and the High Court had stayed its operation through its interim orders, the state government issued another GO (14 of 2022) with the same intent.
Subsequently, another PIL was filed to challenge the new in February 2022. The court clubbed two PILs and heard the case on March 19, 2022.
Hearing the case, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surepalli Nanda has directed the Chief Secretary to file the counter within four weeks.
Chikkudu Prabhakar, the counsel arguing for both the PILs, had informed the court that the state government was expected to initiate action to retrieve the encroached lands, but its approach is encouraging land grabbers in the urban areas of Telangana. “The orders in question are for ‘private good, and not public good,” the counsel argued and pointed at the government's laxity in filing its response to the PILs. After hearing the case, the Bench headed by the then Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma had given the last opportunity to the state government to file the counter in the PIL challenging GO 59. The bench also had observed in the open court that the Chief Secretary should appear before the court for the next hearing if the state fails to counter. However, the state government did not file the counter even after four months. On Wednesday, the counsel for the state government requested some more time to file the counters.
Accepting the request of the counsel, the division bench headed by the Chief Justice gave four weeks time to comply and adjourned the next hearing to August 24.
