HC stays TS plans to raze secretariat
The Telangana High Court on Tuesday asked the Telangana state government to stop its plans of demolishing the buildings in the Secretariat at Saifabad, until it disposes a batch of public interest litigations (PILs) before it challenging the government’s decision to demolish the existing buildings to pave the way to construct a new building for the Secretariat.
While dealing the PILs against the demolition of existing buildings, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy directed state advocate general B.S. Prasad to convey this order of the Court to the government.
Cautioning the government against going ahead with any action when the issue was under the consideration of the Court, CJ Chauhan said that if the state demolishes the Secretariat while the issue was under judicial scrutiny, then it would scuttle the judicial process.
The CJ observed that the state government cannot take up demolition work until the Court gives its consent for it. He also said that it would scrutinise all PILs before it on this issue on a priority basis after the Dasara vacation ends on October 14.
Advocate general Prasad submitted to the Court that all offices in the existing Secretariat had been shifted to the BRKR Bhavan and other places to proceed with construction of new buildings after the demolition of old building.
The AG argued that it was a policy decision of the state government to construct the new buildings and requested the Court to hear PILs at an early date so that the government can go ahead with the demolition. Responding to the contentions of the AG, the Bench suggested the government continue its administrative work from the place it had now shifted its offices to.
The court said that it would consider the issue from both sides and strive to ensure that all PILs were adjudicated upon as early as possible. The Bench adjourned the PILs to October 14.
A total of five PILs have been pending before the court, challenging demolition of the Secretariat. Three of these were filed in 2016 and two this year, after the Council of Ministers took a decision to construct new buildings and demolish the existing ones.