The Telangana High Court on Monday passed a direction to serve notices to the State government and other private parties in a PIL petition filed by Congress MP A. Revanth Reddy over allotment of 31.35 acres of land, ownership of which changed hands, in Raidurg on western part of Hyderabad.
A division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, before which the plea came up for hearing, instructed the government to file a counter affidavit with complete details on the matter in four weeks. Mr. Reddy made the State government represented by Chief Secretary, Principal Secretaries of Industries and Commerce and Municipal Administration and Urban Development along with the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited as respondents in the PIL plea.
Along with the government, he cited M/s DLF Limited, M/s DLF Rayadurg Developers Private Limited, M/s Aqua Space Developers Private Limited, M/s My Home Constructions Limited, State Bank of India’s Industrial Finance Branch and RMZ Corp as respondents in the petition. Citing the history of the allotment of land for development of IT and allied sectors in the undivided State of Andhra Pradesh, the petitioner said the 31.35 acres of land was allowed to be transferred to M/s DLF Rayadurg Developers Private Limited in violation of rules.
The petitioner’s counsel said the government allowed even exchange of the original piece of land for another land albeit in the same area. The new land allotted to the company had higher market value. This land eventually landed in the hands of a company which was owned by a real estate developers having close links with the powers that be, the petitioner alleged.
IAS officers as varsity V-Cs
In another PIL petition challenging the State government’s decision appointing IAS officers as vice-chancellors of universities, the division bench issued notices to the government. It instructed the Principal Secretary of Higher Education, University Grants Commission along with the V-Cs and Registrars of universities to file a detailed counter affidavit on the matter within four weeks.
The petitioner and Osmania University Assistant Professor S. Karunakar Reddy filed the plea seeking to declare the office note issued by the Chief Minister’s office on July 24 last year over appointment of IAS officers as V-Cs as unilateral, illegal and arbitrary.
MLA’s citizenship issue
In a separate case, Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili on Monday directed ruling TRS party MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh, who approached Telangana High Court after the Centre cancelled his citizenship, to furnish papers confirming that he had abdicated German citizenship.
The Centre had annulled his Indian citizenship after finding that he had German citizenship when he contested as MLA. Challenging the order, he approached the HC which had stayed the Centre’s order on the matter and extended it. The matter was posted to February 24 for next hearing.