HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Thursday rapped former GHMC commissioner Lokesh Kumar, along with senior GHMC officials, for violating court orders by ignoring the prescribed procedure for demolition of unauthorised constructions at Deccan Kitchen Hotel in Film Nagar.
The court presided over by Justice Kanneganti Lalitha, observed that the “state machinery is in such an assumption that courts have to consider whatever you (officials) have said. It seems like an adamant attitude of officials, as they do whatever they want, without considering the procedure and ignoring the court orders.”
The court questioned how Lokesh Kumar didn’t know of its current position or learnt about it from the standing counsel, given that he was a respondent.
“The demolition incident displays the heights of your arrogance… you are so thick-skinned as to not heed the court orders,” Justice Lalitha said.
The hotel, which belongs to actor Daggubati Venkatesh, Suresh and Rana Naidu, was occupied by M/s W3 Hospitality Private Ltd as tenants and maintained by its director K. Nandu Kumar, prime accused in the BRS MLAs poaching case.
The High Court, on November 11, last year, passed interim orders not to take coercive action in the matter but GHMC demolished the allegedly unauthorised structure on November 13, which was a Sunday.
This also violated the orders of the Supreme Court, which categorically stated that no demolition or eviction must be done by authorities on Sunday.
Terming the same as contempt of court orders, the court summoned Lokesh Kumar along with other staff, who appeared on Thursday, after the court gave him a last chance due to repeated failures to attend hearings despite being called to explain the incident.
On Thursday, Lokesh Kumar told the court that he was not aware of the November 11 interim order and submitted that the GHMC staff made a mistake in identifying the property, which was to be demolished and on which the court orders had been passed.
Further, Lokesh Kumar said that the location of unauthorised construction was in busy areas. He contended that demolition on working days would have obstructed traffic flow. He claimed that staff had stopped the demolition immediately after being made aware of the court order. He submitted that the demolition lasted for one hour until they came to know of the court order.
Further, the judge questioned the basis for the police protection, as hundreds of personnel were deployed.
Justice Lalitha also asked Lokesh Kumar how many demolitions of illegal constructions were carried out in his tenure and how many were done on Sunday.
“When the layman and ordinary people came for action against unauthorised constructions… you don't respond. But… at the insistence of powerful people, you don't care about the rules, procedures and court orders. This is nothing but to make an impression on common people that officials can do anything they want and courts do nothing,” the court observed.
When Nanda Kumar's counsel argued that GHMC officials were colluding with the Daggubati family members and carried out the demolition to hand over the property to them, Justice Lalitha said that contempt of court will be invoked against Daggubati Venkatesh, D. Suresh and D. Rana.
The court directed the counsel for Nanda Kumar to submit a recorded videograph of the demolition to establish that demolition took place for more than one hour, hundreds of police deployed and the presence of persons associated with the property owners, to prove his contentions.
The court also made it clear to Lokesh Kumar and GHMC officials, that it would not spare them if the videograph disproved the former commissioner’s contentions. The court adjourned the case for two weeks.
