HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court reprimanded the HYDRAA for carrying out illegal demolitions at Kistareddypet, Ameenpur mandal, on Sunday, in the face of a court order. The court came down heavily on HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath, who appeared before the court virtually and the Ameenpur tahsildar, who was present in the court, for not following due procedure.
Justice K. Lakshman took a serious view of the strategy adopted by the officials to conduct demolition drives on Sundays, which was in violation to the principles laid down by the Full Bench of High Court previously. The court dealing with a plea filed by Mohammed Rafi and another.
The petitioners said they were lawful owners of the property at Sri Krishnanagar in the village and had started construction work after obtaining building permissions. The petitioners alleged that the gram panchayat of Kistareddypet had cancelled the permission, which was challenged in a writ petition.
As an interim direction, the court had earlier suspended the notice issued by the gram panchayat. They alleged that another notice was issued stating that they had constructed the building on government land illegally. An explanation was given to the said notice.
The petitioner said that without considering the explanation, the tahsildar had passed speaking order and came to the property at 7.30 am on Sunday along with bulldozers and with more than 50 people and demolished the structure illegally by throwing out the belongings of the petitioners, which was in the teeth of the interim orders granted earlier by the court.
The judge ordered appearance of the tahsildar of Ameenpur mandal and the HYDRAA commissioner. On Monday, the judge came down heavily at the tahsildar, who was present physically, for acting in disorderly haste in demolishing the structures and questioned why the demolition could not have been carried out on Monday.
The judge also wondered how the demolition had been carried out despite there being a full bench order stating no demolition can be done on Sundays.
The judge said, “If you do such illegal acts to please your political or executive bosses, then you will land in trouble”. The judge also questioned HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath as to the undue haste in demolishing the structures.
Ranganath pointed out that they were just a coordinating agency and had no role in the decision-making process. He stated that on the request of the tahsildar, they had provided men and machinery to protect government land, to which the judge asked, “if the tahsildar Charminar requests you to provide men and machinery to demolish the High Court on the pretext that it has encroached, will you do the same? Or will you conduct a preliminary injury whether the action intended to take is appropriate or not?”
The judge cautioned the HYDRAA to inspect the relevant records before providing men and machinery. He also said that people have lost confidence in the HYDRAA for acting discriminately. The judge enquired about the Musi River plan and said, “Today there are twenty lunch motions granted today qua alleged illegal demolitions for Musi River plan.”
Ranganath stated before the court that the HYDRAA was strictly following its objectives and would follow due procedure of law.
Justice Lakshman said that none of its objectives were followed except carrying out demolition, pointing to one of the objective of traffic coordination and management. He said that there was no instance when HYDRAA or its officers had coordinated with regular traffic police for traffic management. The judge also questioned the HYDRAA commissioner, “Can you overnight change the city?”
The judge said a government order establishing HYDRAA maybe appreciable but such illegal acts by it cannot be tolerated. The judge after hearing the parties, directed HYDRAA and others to file its counter and posted the matter to October 15.
