Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has given one final chance to the state government to file a counter affidavit to a 2015 PIL. The PIL challenged GO 59, which allowed occupants of government lands in urban areas to regularize plots that they had occupied.
However, the government has not filed the counter affidavit even after the court sought an explanation about the grounds on which it ordered regularisation of government lands that were occupied.
The TRS government had issued GO 58 and GO 59 in 2015 seeking applications for regularisation of lands against specific areas. The petitioner urged the court to declare the GO 59 as illegal and arbitrary. Their contention was that the GO benefitted land grabbers and was not for the good of the public.
After seven years of silence, the government recently issued another GO asking land grabbers and occupants of government lands to submit their applications for regularization.
The petitioners said that despite the issue being sub-judice, the government has called for fresh applications. Their counsel requested the court to direct the authorities to initiate criminal action against the land grabbers and prosecute them under the Land Grabbing Act.
The court directed the respondents to file counters within six weeks, failing which the principal secretary of revenue (Somesh Kumar holds the additional charge) has to appear before the Court on July 20.
