HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Friday granted six weeks as the ‘last opportunity’ to the State government for filing counter to a PIL against the GO 59, which makes provisions for regularisation of lands under encroachment. The Chief Secretary shall appear before the court for the next hearing if the State fails to respond.
The government had issued two orders -- GO 58 & GO 59 -- for assignment/regularization and transfer of rights over unobjectionable encroachments on lands belonging to State Government, and various other departments, corporations and institutions.In 2015 retired professor Anwar Khan and activst Naresh Goud filed a PIL challenging the orders and sought directions from the HC to declare them as illegal.
Counsel for the petitioner Chikkudu Prabhakar informed the court that the State government ought to initiate action to retrieve the encroached lands, but the its approach is encouraging land grabbers in the urban areas of Telangana. The orders in question are for ‘private good, and not public good’. He further pointed at laxity of the government in filing its response to the PILs.
After hearing the petitioners counsel, an HC bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili granted ‘one last opportunity’ to the Government to file its counter and posted the matter for the next hearing on July 20, 2022.