HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Monday declined to grant interim relief in a batch of petitions challenging the constitution of the Kothagudem Municipal Corporation, formed by merging the Kothagudem and Paloncha municipalities.
The petitions questioned the inclusion of seven tribal gram panchayats in the corporation, contending that the villages fall within a Scheduled Area notified under the Presidential Order and that mandatory constitutional safeguards were not followed. The state government has filed counter-affidavits disputing these claims. After hearing both sides, the bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin observed that the petitioners had not placed prima facie material to establish that the villages in question form part of a Scheduled Area as notified under the Presidential Order of 1950. In the absence of such proof, the court held that no case was made out for interim relief and adjourned the matter for four weeks.
The petitioners, Potru Praveen Kumar, a social worker, and Azmeera Naresh, an electrician, both residents of Paloncha, challenged GO Ms. No. 177 and Act No. 17 of 2025, through which the area was upgraded into a municipal corporation. They alleged violations of constitutional provisions applicable to Scheduled Areas.
Counsel for the petitioners argued that the merger contravened the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution and that the state had unlawfully converted the seven gram panchayats into municipalities without parliamentary approval.
Reliance was placed on Article 243-ZC(3), which bars the extension of municipal laws to Scheduled Areas unless authorised by Parliament. A 2022 ruling by a division bench was also cited to contend that no municipality can be constituted in Scheduled Areas without such authorisation.
The petitioners claimed infringement of their fundamental rights and sought restoration of Kothagudem and Paloncha as separate municipalities, along with retention of the seven gram panchayats under the Scheduled Area framework. The court directed the petitioners to file their counters and posted the case after four weeks.