Either pay ₹5 crore or demolish the temple constructed on the land meant for public park in Madhavapuri Hills in Ameenpur of Sanga Reddy district on city outskirts, the Telangana High Court suggested to the temple committee on Friday.
A division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, hearing a PIL plea on building temple in Madhavapuri Hills, directed the top officials of the Municipal Administration, Panchayat Raj and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority to appear before it on February 26. Observing that an illegal action could not be justified in the name of god, the bench said everyone had to follow the law.
Expressing concern over the authorities remaining mute spectators to construction of religious structures in public places, the bench remarked that building a temple on a public park land constituted land-grabbing. What would be the situation if temples were constructed for all three crore deities and would any vacant place be available for people, the bench wondered.
In 2018, Human Rights Protection Cell Trust had filed a PIL plea in the High Court on the alleged construction of a temple on 9,866 square yards of land meant for public park in Madhavapuri Hills of Ameenpur. Temple committee counsel told the bench that two Government Orders had been released over State’s policy on use of lands for religious structures.
The bench asked counsel if the government had permitted illegal occupation of park land for construction of religious structures and wanted to see the documents relating to permissions granted by the government in the matter. Explaining that the temple was built in 2014, the lawyer said permission was deemed to have been given if the Panchayat Raj department did not issue any specific orders within 15 days of presenting the application.
But the Supreme Court had ruled earlier that no construction activity shall be taken up on lands meant for public parks, the bench said.