HYDERABAD: While extending the stay on demolition of Secretariat buildings till July 15, a division bench of Telangana High Court on Monday directed the State government to furnish before it the Cabinet’s final decision taken on June 30 to demolish the existing structures and pave way for construction of a new integrated Secretariat complex in its place at Saifabad, near Hussain Sagar lake in the city. The bench also directed the petitioners’ counsel to file a reply to the counter affidavit filed by the government claiming that it has followed all statutory rules and alleging that the petitioners have filed the PIL case with a political motive.

Sectt demolition: HC asks for final decision

On July 10, the bench directed the State to stop the ongoing demolition till July 13. The bench comprising, Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, passed this order in the PIL filed by Telangana Jana Samithi vice-president Prof PL Vishweshwar Rao and Cheruku Sudhakar of Telangana Inti Party, alleging that the ongoing demolition of old Secretariat buildings is taking place in violation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016, Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, Environment Protection Act, 1986 and against various judgements of the Supreme Court and High Court.

Petitioners’ counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar earlier contended that the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016 contain an elaborate procedure dealing with the demolition waste. The Rule 4(3) of the Rules of 2016 clearly stipulates that the waste generators who generate more than 20 tonnes or more in one day or 300 tonnes per project in a month shall segregate the waste into four streams such as concrete, soil, steel, wood and plastics, bricks and mortar. The rule also states that waste generators should submit a waste management plan and get appropriate approvals from the local authority before starting construction or demolition work, and keep the authorities concerned informed regarding the relevant activities from planning stage to the implementation stage and this would be on project to project basis, he said.

After hearing Advocate General BS Prasad’s submission and perusing the contents of the counter affidavit, the bench said that once a demolition has started, it cannot be stayed halfway. However, the State government has not placed before it the copy of final decision taken by the Cabinet on June 30. Earlier, the Court had passed its orders on Secretariat demolition issue based on the interim decision of the State Cabinet dated June 18, 2019 and such decision was also furnished before it in a sealed cover for its perusal.

Until and unless the court peruses the document relating to final decision, no decision can be taken in the case and do not know whether the petitioners may even challenge the final decision also. The Cabinet’s interim decision was given wide publicity, but surprisingly no media attention was given to the final decision on the issue, the bench remarked. When the Advocate General sought some time to furnish the Cabinet’s final decision in a sealed cover, the High Court bench considered the petition and asked the petitioners’ counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar to file a reply affidavit to the said counter affidavit. The bench set the date of July 15 for further hearing.