Telangana High Court to hear oustees’ relief pleas individually

Hyderabad: The Green Bench of the Telangana High Court has closed all interim applications, including interim orders issued in writ petitions filed by project-affected persons who had challenged the construction of irrigation projects because the government had not paid them the required compensation or provided rehabilitation and re-settlement packages.

The bench of Justices A. Rajasheker Reddy and P. Naveen Rao, which was constituted to deal with cases related to the construction of the Kaleshwaram and Palamuru-Ranga Reddy projects, said that it would hear the cases separately. They would not be heard together as they pertain to compensation as well as R&R packages.

More than 150 petitions have been filed by project oustees against the government for not paying them their dues under the Land Acquisition Act.

Prior to the cases going before the Green Bench, they were pending before various judges and division benches since 2016. In some of the petitions the judges and division benches had passed orders staying construction work until the compensation was disbursed to the petitioners.

On May 16, the vacation bench headed by then Acting Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan (now Chief Justice) vacated all the interim orders issued in the petitions and gave liberty to the state government to proceed with the project works, while directing the state to pay the dues to all the petitioners in a specific time period. This order was given in response to an interim application by the state government.

Aggrieved by the order issued by the vacation bench, the petitioners had filed applications to vacate the order. They contended that without giving notice and without they being heard, the vacation bench had given the green signal to the state government to complete the project works.

This issue was considered by the Green Bench which has now closed all the interim applications, including the interim orders issued by the vacation bench.

However, counsels for the state said that with the orders of the vacation bench issued in May to continue the project works, the government had completed the Kaleshwaram project, particularly the Mallannasagar reservoir, and they said that it will not impact the state if the interim orders are vacated.

While closing the interim applications, the Green Bench said it would pursue the grievances of the petitioners in each single case, whether they were paid the compensation and other benefits according to the rules. The petitioners alleged that the authorities had rejected their applications for R&R packages.

The case has been adjourned to September 13.