The Telangana High Court on Wednesday asked the government if the existing Assembly building can be used after making necessary changes to it.
Continuing the hearing of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the proposed demolition of the Errum Manzil palace to construct a new Assembly building, the High Court asked the government if crores of public money needed to be spent on constructing the new building.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther directed government counsel to present the official view on the problems likely to crop up with the construction of the new Assembly building at Errum Manzil.
Presenting arguments on behalf of the State Government, Additional Advocate General J. Ramachandra Rao cited different Supreme Court verdicts supporting the government’s decision to construct the new Assembly building by demolishing the Errum Manzil palace.
He argued that once a new Act was made, all the previous laws on the same subject stood annulled. The Division Bench then asked the Additional Advocate General how the verdict quoted by him was relevant to the present writ petition (which challenged the demolition of the Errum Manzil palace) as it was initially declared a heritage structure.
The Bench also sought to know from the government the provisions in the new Act about heritage structures. It also said the government could not make different decisions on the same subject, pointing out Errum Manzil being first declared a heritage structure and then being dropped from the list of protected buildings.
The Bench asked Mr. Rao if there was a specific design or layout for the proposed new Assembly building. The government was directed to present its views on the issues relating to dropping the Errum Manzil palace from the heritage list, spending huge amount of public money and traffic issues. The matter was posted for Thursday.
Report on OGH
A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther on Wednesday directed the Telangana State Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation to file a detailed report by August 26 on the condition of building blocks in Osmania General Hospital.
The Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association filed a Public Interest Litigation, seeking directions to the government to immediately initiate steps to develop new multi-storied building blocks/complex for housing Osmania General Hospital, nursing college, hostel and other facilities in the place of the existing dilapidated blocks/structures, including the in-patient block on the 265-acre land located at Afzal Gunj.