Hyderabad: A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P. Naveen Rao of the Hyderabad High Court on Friday refused to stay the decision of the TS government to scrap the AP Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 1982 and transferring all land grabbing cases pending in special courts and tribunals to the city civil courts and district courts.
The bench was dealing with a petition by one L. Subbarami Reddy, a resident of the city, questioning GO Ms No 113 issued on June 1, 2016 repealing the Land Grabbing Act 1982. He contended that the government has no power to repeal the Act and said that the transfer of cases was in violation of the order of the High Court granted in earlier cases.
TS AG K. Ramakrishna Reddy submitted that as per Section 101 of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, the TS government has the power to amend or repeal any law in existence on June 2, 2014.
The bench said that Section 101 empowers the state to make changes in existing laws but it has to examine whether it empowers the state to transfer the case to other courts or not. At this juncture, when counsel for the petitioner insisted on a stay of the GO 113, the bench refused and said the matter has to be examined in detail and posted the case to next week.
