HYDERABAD: Justice K Sarath of the Telangana High Court on Friday directed the registrar-general of the court to seek reports from various district officials concerning the jurisdictional authority to entertain civil suits under the Telangana Agency Rules, 1924.
This judge was hearing a civil revision petition filed by one Chavan Prakash, challenging the orders passed by the additional agent to the government and project officer, ITDA, Adilabad, headquartered at Utnoor.
Prakash had approached the project officer seeking an injunction under Order VII, Rule 1, read with Section 151 of the Civil Procedure Code and Rule 42 of the Telangana Agency Rules, 1924. Within this suit, he also submitted an Interlocutory Application (IA) requesting that certain documents be examined by a handwriting expert, which was subsequently dismissed.
Aggrieved by this dismissal, Prakash filed the civil revision petition. Hearing the petition, the judge expressed surprise that the ITDA project officer was entertaining civil suits under the Telangana Agency Rules, 1924, without having the requisite power and jurisdiction to do so.
On July 12, 2024, the court directed the Adilabad district collector and the project officer to provide a detailed report regarding the acceptance of civil suits by the latter. The court, referencing its own and the Supreme Court’s judgments, reiterated that civil suits in Scheduled Areas must be instituted according to the Telangana Agency Rules, 1924. These rules explicitly detail the value of suits and the officers authorised to entertain such suits.