Telangana HC Rules Recovery of Demolition Costs for Illegal Structures Mandatory
Court says public funds cannot be used to clear illegal constructions
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court directed the GHMC to recover the expenses incurred for demolition of illegal structures from the violators, rather than use public funds for the purpose. Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar noted that the recovery of such expenses was a legal requirement.
The judge was dealing with a petition filed by Dachepally Chandrababu, who complained that the GHMC was not taking action against encroachers who were constructing a temple by encroaching the road at Street No.10, Tarnaka, after the flyover towards Osmania University.
Petitioner`s counsel Vijay Gopal brought to the notice of the court that civic authorities were issuing statutory notices and thereafter not proceeding further to initiate action unless writ petitions were filed for not considering the complaints/ representations made to the civic authorities.
Counsel submitted that in the event of the authorities demolishing the unauthorised structures over the subject property, there was a chance of violators restarting construction of unauthorised structures as they were not affected in any way as the demolition expenses were being incurred from public money.
The court directed the GHMC to inspect the complaint and if the allegations of illegality were proven to be true to demolish the illegal portion. The court directed for recovery of the expenses incurred for such demolition of those setting up the unauthorised portion.
