Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has held that the additional agents to the government and project officers of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency were not competent to entertain civil suits in the Agency areas.
Justice Kaja Sarath of the High Court pointed out that the GO 274 dated June 15, 2022, clearly showed that the powers of the agents or collectors to entertain the civil suits under the Telangana Agency Rules 1924, were not delegated to the project officers.
The judge was dealing with a civil revision petition filed by Chavan Prakash of erstwhile Adilabad district, who complained that the additional agent / ITDA project officer of Adilabad had dismissed his application requesting them to send a document for handwriting expert for examination.
At an earlier hearing, the court inquired about the authority of the additional agent in entertaining the civil suits. The court was informed that the agent to government/district collector or the agency divisional officer/revenue divisional officers were not entertaining civil suits in undivided Adilabad district and all civil cases were being entertained only by the ITDA project officer at Utnoor as additional agent to government. This continued after the district was reorganized.
The judge directed the Utnoor ITDA project officer to submit a detailed report with regard to entertaining civil suits, the particulars of suits including the territorial area, district-wise in undivided Adilabad district.
The judge also directed the Registrar General of High Court to obtain statements from the agents to government/district collector of Adilabad regarding pendency of civil suits and its progress as per Rule 57 of Telangana Agency Rules, and place them in the record before the court.
