The Telangana High Court, on Thursday, cautioned the State government that appropriate orders would be passed if it failed to furnish the gazette notification issued for acquiring a piece of land in Mutrajpally of Gajwel in Siddipet district for rehabilitation of the farmers whose properties were acquired for construction of the Mallannasagar project.
A Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, hearing an appeal against a single judge order in a petition filed by a private party against acquisition of the land, took an exception over the government’s counsel failing to present the gazette notification pertaining to the matter. The Bench noted that despite a specific instruction from the HC during the previous hearing to present the gazette notification, the assistant government pleader appearing in the matter failed to explain why the HC order was not complied with.
Special Government Pleader Sanjeev Kumar, who was present in the court hall, assured the Bench that the same would be furnished by the next date of hearing. The Bench remarked that failure of the government counsel would land the Siddipet District Collector in trouble.
‘File counter affidavit’
In a separate matter, the Bench, on Thursday, directed the State government to file a counter affidavit within a week in a PIL petition challenging Government Order (GO) 84 that permitted regularisation of sale transactions through unregistered documents with attestation of notary.
The Bench posted the matter for next hearing to September 21. The petitioners contended that permitting such a regularisation was arbitrary and illegal stating that it would only help unscrupulous individuals, who would acquire properties through unlawful ways in future.
Disha case
Also, noting that it cannot hear the matters related to the ‘Disha encounter’ without counter affidavits from the respondents, including the Telangana government, the Bench instructed the State to file the same within four weeks. Supreme Court lawyer Vrinda Grover, appearing virtually for presenting contentions in one of the PIL pleas connected to the ‘encounter’, said that the filing of counter affidavits was being deferred continuously by the State “for reasons best known” to the authorities.
When the government counsel sought more time, the Chief Justice instructed the respondents to file their affidavits and posted the batch of PIL pleas to October 9 for hearing.
