Won't modify status quo at this juncture, Hyderabad HC tells Telangana, AP

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday made it clear to both AP and TS that it will not modify or amend the stay order on acquisition of the Endowments lands at this juncture, except for public purpose.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akhter was dealing with a batch of petitions from both states challenging the stay on procuring temple lands for public purpose with mutual consent of the temple authorities.

When the petitions come up for hearing AP advocate-general D. Srinivas urged the bench to permit the state government to regularise constructions that have come up on lands belonging to Simhachalam Devasthanam in Visakhapatnam.

He told the court that the government was prepared to allot 543 acres to the Devasthanam in lieu of regularisation of 9,000 structures on temple lands.
To this, the bench asked when the government itself was admitting that there were encroachments on 450 acres of the temple, how could it go for regularisations without taking any steps to remove those encroachments.

While telling the advocate-general to give 543 acres to the temple without linking it to regularisation, the bench said without hearing the case in detail, it would not modify the stay granted in 2005.

Telangana asks HC to lift stay on GO 123
The TS government on Wednesday urged the Hyderabad High Court to vacate stay on acquisition of lands for irrigation projects through GO 123 as it has formulated a scheme to resettle and rehabilitate the families of agriculture labourers, artisans and others affected.

TS advocate-general K. Ramakrishna Reddy, while making a mention before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akhter to take up hearing for vacating the stay, told the bench that the government has issued the GO for rehabilitation of affected families.

He said that due to the stay, the government was unable to acquire lands for several irrigation projects. The A-G placed a copy of the GO before the court.
The bench said that it will hear the case on Tuesday.