HYDERABAD: Paving the way for construction of a new State Secretariat complex near Saifabad in the city, a division bench of Telangana High Court on Monday dismissed the batch of PILs filed challenging the State Cabinet decision to demolish the existing Secretariat buildings and to raise new Secretariat complex in its place.
The bench refused to interfere in the State government’s decision, saying that it does not find any irregularity in the Cabinet decision.
Pronouncing the judgment, the bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy dismissed the batch PILs filed separately between 2016 and 2019 by senior Congress leader T Jeevan Reddy, advocate T Rajinikanth Reddy and the Forum for Good Governance, an NGO represented by its secretary M Padmanabha Reddy, seeking the court to grant stay on shifting the offices of Telangana Secretariat to other buildings and demolition of existing structures and to construct new buildings in its place.
Congress MP A Revanth Reddy and Telangana Jana Samithi vice-president Prof PL Vishweshwar Rao also filed the PILs challenging the impending demolition of Secretariat buildings.
During the course of hearing at length earlier, the petitioners’ counsels while strongly opposing the Cabinet decision, have contended that no material was taken into consideration while taking a decision by the Cabinet on June 18 last year to demolish the existing
Secretariat buildings. They termed the decision to construct a new complex as a wasteful expenditure. Even when the State is reeling under severe financial crisis, the government’s decision to construct a new secretariat complex at the cost of tax payers money is not correct.
From 2015, the Chief Minister has been carrying out his administration from Pragathi Bhavan and has never visited the Secretariat from that time. Though the existing Secretariat has catered to the needs of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states and is very conducive to carry out the administration, the present government has decided to demolish it in 2016, they pointed out and said that there is no justification in the decision taken by the State government and such a decision is liable to be dismissed.
State Advocate General BS Prasad defended the decision of the State government to demolish the existing ‘unsafe’ buildings and to construct a new spacious integrated state of the art Secretariat complex in its place. There is no ulterior motive behind the Cabinet decision.
The technical committee, in its report, found that it is not possible to make any changes to the conditions prevailing in the existing Secretariat buildings. There are eight blocks located in congested lanes where fire brigade vans cannot enter and it is not feasible to have fire safety measures.
Besides, the blocks’ life span, which is only 50 to 60 years, has already lapsed. Except for two blocks, other blocks in the Secretariat are dilapidated. There are judgments that restrained the courts from interfering in decisions taken reasonably by the Cabinet, the AG noted and urged for dismissal of PILs to pave way for implementation of Cabinet decision. He further said that the government has not taken any step in finalising building plans of the proposed complex as the matter is sub judice. An amount of Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore is required for the proposed buildings.
The area allotted to all the 32 departments, which were functioning in the Secretariat complex prior to their vacating the said building, is 4.45 lakh square feet. On February 12, the bench directed the State to not disturb the existing Secretariat buildings until further court orders. On March 6, the bench concluded the arguments and reserved its judgment in the case. Agreeing with the AG’s arguments, the bench dismissed the PILs now. When senior advocate S Satyam Reddy, appearing for Jeevan Reddy, urged the court to keep this judgment in abeyance for four months so as to enable him to challenge this order before the SC, the bench while rejecting the senior advocate’s plea, said that he can approach the Apex Court as it is also hearing urgent cases through video conferencing mode.
‘No irregularity in Cabinet decision’
The High Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, refused to interfere in the State government’s decision, saying that it does not find any irregularity in the Cabinet decision.
The bench dismissed the batch PILs filed separately between 2016 and 2019.