Hyderabad: Maintaining that the right of an owner of a private property to have access to a public road was inbuilt in his right to enjoy the said property, the Hyderabad High Court on Friday held that a civic body could not block access of public to the streets. The order will enable to citizens to agitate for their right to enjoy civic property.
Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was allowing a petition by N. Vamsi Krishna of Ponnuru town in Guntur district, challenging the action of the municipal authorities in refusing to remove a bus shelter, which was blocking access to his vacant land of 183 sq. yards. The civic body contended that the petitioner, knew that a bus shelter existed in front of the site, had acquired the same in 2013.
Pix prove bus shelter used as makeshift bar
The court was dealing with a petition filed by a a resident of Ponnuru town in Guntur district Nannapaneni Vamsi Krishna, against a bus shelter in front of his plot where he intended to built a house.
It was stated that there was a 13-foot gap between the petitioner’s site and the bus-shelter and he was allegedly seeking removal of the shelter not just for the purpose of ingress and egress, but also to increase the commercial value of the property.
The authorities informed the court that the bus shelter was constructed jointly by the Lions Club of Ponnuru and the grandsons of one Pulikonda Musalaiah in his memory.
After perusing the case records and photographs placed by the petitioner, the judge noted that the photographs clearly demonstrated that the bus shelter completely blocked the frontage of the petitioner’s site and the diagonal access said to have been provided by the municipality appeared to be unrealistic and provided no means of access at all. The photographs also revealed that the bus shelter was being utilised as a makeshift bar for consumption of liquor. The judge held that blocking access to the site amounted to total deprivation of petitioner’s constitutional right to enjoy his property.
While directing the civic authorities to remove the bus shelter within two months from the date of receipt of the order, the judge said that as the endeavour of the grandsons of Musalaiah was only to safeguard the memory of their ancestor, it would be open to them to name the newly constructed bus-shelter, the cost of which would be borne by the petitioner, after their ancestor.
