Hyderabad: Justice Lalitha Kanneganti of the Telangana High Court, voicing displeasure at the manner in which the Sherlingampally zonal commissioner of the GHMC was acting against court orders, issued suo motu contempt proceedings, while hearing a writ petition seeking permission for constructing a building. The Justice said that the commissioner was summoned just the other day, but was again acting in a high-handed manner in the current case. The development comes after the court earlier asked the GHMC to examine the application of the petitioner and pass necessary orders, within its ambit, to deal with the title deed of the applicant.
The counsel for the petitioner, however, argued that even though the court had ordered the civic body to examine the application, the same was rejected without reason. When a similar dispute arose previously, a division bench of the High Court directed the GHMC to examine all such applications. The standing counsel for the GHMC argued that all rejections were based on a letter issued by the district collector, who stated that the land in question was owned by the government.
The court observed that the issue was previously dealt with and that the respondents were deliberately contravening court orders, having no respect for the same.
If respondents are aggrieved by the order, they are entitled to file a
review petition or appeal it, the court said. Initiating proceedings against the zonal commissioner, the court also directed the civic body to examine the application of the petitioner.
Farmers complain lack of crop damage compensation
Justice Lalitha Kanneganti of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday asked the government to provide more details in a petition filed for enumerating crop loss of farmers. The petition was filed by Gade Upender, a farmer of Waddur village, along with other farmers of Adilabad district, who are aggrieved by the inaction of agriculture authorities in not taking steps to assess the crop and soil loss and grant appropriate compensation for their crops that were damaged due to incessant rains in July. The counsel for the petitioners argued that due to heavy rains in July, the fields of petitioners were inundated and crops were destroyed. According to the Disaster Management Act, the district collector along with agriculture officers, have to conduct surveys and the government must grant input subsidy or compensation to the farmers for their crop loss. Although the
court directed the authorities to conduct a survey, no survey was conducted, he said. The government pleader informed the court that he has to obtain information from officials regarding the survey. While directing him time to secure information, the court posted the case to Tuesday for further hearing.
