VIJAYAWADA: In a significant development, the Centre on Tuesday informed a division bench of the High Court that it would implead in the appeal filed by the AP government challenging the judgement of the single judge to stop the construction of houses under the Pedalandariki Illu scheme.
On October 8, the HC directed the State government not to proceed with the construction of houses in the land allotted to beneficiaries of the scheme till a special committee looks into the issue of modifying layouts and submits its report. The State government had filed a petition before the division bench challenging the single judge’s order.
Assistant Solicitor General N Harinath, on behalf of the Centre, said they would implead in the petition. Harinath said he got clear instructions from the Centre in this regard. He informed that the single-judge bench did not take into consideration several facts and submitted that they would be placed before the division bench, if the Centre is allowed to implead in the case.
Additional Advocate General Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy on Tuesday referred the filing of petition before the division bench of Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice A Venkatasesha Sai. The AAG said certified copies of the single judge’s order were already placed before the bench and sought urgent hearing. The Centre needs to implead as a respondent as the housing scheme is linked to the PMAY, he said. The division bench directed the Centre to file an implead petition and posted the matter to October 28.