Telangana High Court on Monday said that if any persons believe that there was a treasure beneath the rubble of the demolished Secretariat buildings they can approach the Archaeological Survey of India.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy made this observation while hearing a PIL plea filed by Congress leaders seeking a direction to State government to allow them to examine the site of demolished Secretariat buildings. The bench issued notices to State government seeking its response over the PIL petition. Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police and Hyderabad Police Commisisoner were the respondents in the petition.
Congress leaders Mohd. Ali Shabbir, A. Revanth Reddy, Anjan Kumar Yadav and Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and others initially filed a writ petition and their lawyer counsel mentioned about it before the bench three days ago
Since the petitioners were seeking an order in the plea connected to people, the bench accorded the plea PIL status and heard it on Monday. The bench noted that a public representative does not have the power to investigate anything, be it intentional or unintentional referring to the petitioners’ claim that there was treasure beneath the rubble. Such issues cannot be finalised by public representatives, the court said.
The petitioners’ counsel T. Rajinikanth Reddy told the bench that Congress leaders had approached the Home Secretary and the DGP seeking permission to visit the demolition site. Since the two top officials did not respond over the representations, the petitioners had approached the court, Mr. Reddy said.
Government Pleader A. Santosh Kumar attached to Advocate General office sought two weeks of time stating that AG B.S. Prasad would appear to present government stand on the matter. He sought adjournment of the hearing for two weeks. The bench posted the plea for hearing after two weeks.