Secretariat demolition case: Telangana HC refuses to hear it on out-of-turn basis

HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Thursday declined to take up a plea filed against the proposed demolition of the Secretariat on an out-of-turn basis.
Earlier, the HC had issued notices to Telangana state and its officials from road and buildings, municipal administration, and law departments to take their stand on the public interest petition filed by Professor PL Visweswara Rao of Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS). The petitioner had questioned the state’s proposed decision to construct a new Secretariat after demolishing the existing structures.
The bench of chief justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and justice Shameem Akther, last month, refused to pass any restraint order against the state.
On Thursday, the petitioner’s counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar made an appeal to the high court to take up the matter on an urgent basis. The bench, however, refused to do so.
Earlier, the state had filed a counter in which it said that it wants to demolish the existing ‘unsafe’ structures at the Secretariat and said that it wants to raise a new structure there in tune with the current needs. The bench earlier questioned the petitioner asking him to cite the provision of the law that empowers the court to intervene in the policy decision of the state.