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Don’t take up demolition of Secretariat, High Court tells govt
The decision of the Telangana state government to demolish the existing buildings in Secretariat complex and build a new complex will be subjected to the tests of whether it is reasonable to do so and whether it is in public interest by the High Court at Hyderabad. Until then the state government has been directed not to demolish the existing structures.
Hyderabad: The decision of the Telangana state government to demolish the existing buildings in Secretariat complex and build a new complex will be subjected to the tests of whether it is reasonable to do so and whether it is in public interest by the High Court at Hyderabad. Until then the state government has been directed not to demolish the existing structures.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A Shankar Narayan made this clear to the Telangana Advocate General K Ramakrishna Reddy during the course of hearing of a public interest litigation filed by Congress MLA Jeevan Reddy against the plans of the state government to raze the buildings down.
Senior counsel for the petitioner S Satyam Reddy contended that it is not the personal property of anyone to whimsically take decisions about demolition and moreover hundreds of crores of rupees of public money was involved.
He sought an order from the Court prohibiting not only demolition of the existing structures but also shifting of the Telangana government offices out of the existing Secretariat complex pending disposal of the PIL.
Telangana Advocate General K Ramakrishna Reddy urged the bench to dismiss the petition as the Madras High Court had done in similar circumstances when a PIL was filed against building of a new Secretariat complex.
He contended that the government’s power to decide on the place and structure to locate its offices and functioning is not a matter that is justiciable.
The bench made it clear that the Court will not come in the way of the Government on the issue of where it wants to run its offices from. However since the subject structures are public property, the Court will run the tests of whether the decision of the Government is reasonable and in public interest.
The Acting CJ remarked that personally he would give a serious thought before spending even a paisa of public money but at the same time what can be the role of judiciary in such cases is also a question to ponder. He underlined that all three organs of the State have to function under the rule of law.
He directed the Telangana state government to file a counter affidavit within one week and wanted the AG to assure that the buildings would not be demolished until the matter is heard next week. The AG gave this assurance and the matter has been posted to next Tuesday.
