HYDERABAD: Justice NV Shravan Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Friday ordered status quo on the acquisition of lands belonging to 82 petitioners and directed that they shall not be evicted until further orders.
The court issued the order while hearing three writ petitions challenging the preliminary notification issued under Section 11(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, along with the 10A exemption, dated 28 October 2024.
The notification was issued by the Rangareddy district collector for acquiring land for the proposed Greenfield Radial Road linking the Outer Ring Road interchange at Raviryal with the Regional Ring Road at Amangal.
The petitions were filed by villagers of Lemoor (Kandukur mandal) and Kongarkalan (Ibrahimpatnam mandal). Senior counsel J Ramchander Rao and advocate Ch Ravi Kumar, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the acquisition process violated mandatory provisions of the 2013 Act.
They contended that despite submitting objections in November and December 2024, the authorities neither considered them nor granted a mandatory personal hearing. They further alleged that environmental clearances were not obtained before initiating the project.
After hearing both sides, the court directed maintenance of status quo and restrained the authorities from evicting the petitioners.
The state government was directed to file counter affidavits in all three writ petitions within three weeks.