HYDERABAD: The vacation bench of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed authorities to maintain status quo in the petition filed by the University of Hyderabad (UoH) which has challenged the decision to lay an approach road through its campus.
The stretch is from the Indian School of Business (ISB) road to the government employees' colonies at Gachibowli in Serilingampally mandal of Rangareddy district. The court made it clear that the status quo will not come in the way of the people using the said road which has already been laid.
Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili passed this interim order in the petition filed by the UoH. Represented by its registrar, the university has sought direction to the MAUD Secretary, GHMC Commissioner, Rangareddy Collector and the tahsildar not to interfere with the UoH's peaceful possession of the land admeasuring 18 acres.
The site is part of the 2,324 acres allotted by the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government in 1975 to establish the university campus. Senior advocate A Sudershan Reddy, appearing for the UoH, submitted that the land was encroached upon and the authorities have proposed to lay an approach road on it without taking permission from the university. In 2012, the UoH had opposed the proposal of parting with its land for the construction of the road and the same was indicated to the current authorities too.
Despite this, the Collector had directed the tahsildar to handover the physical possession of the land to the GHMC for the road. This proposal was dropped after the varsity strongly objected to it. Surprisingly, the GHMC had recently levelled the area despite the land continuing to be vested with the university.
This is not only arbitrary but also illegal, he argued. Special counsel for the government, Harender Pershad, informed the court that the road has been laid and sought time to file a counter affidavit. The case was adjourned by two weeks.