Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has asked the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to extract the cost of demolition from the developer itself, with citizens approaching the court questioning the use of public money to demolish illegal structures.
Justice NV Shravan Kumar pronounced the orders on Tuesday, April 7, while hearing a writ petition filed by Dachepally Chandrababu, who had flagged the unauthorised construction of a temple arch on a public road in Tarnaka.
According to the petitioner, he had first noticed the illegal construction by Shree Durga Pochamma Devasthanam on February 27 and posted about it on the social media platform X, expecting action from municipal authorities.
However, no action was taken and finally, a complaint was filed on the GHMC Mobile App on March 15. Still, the respondent (GHMC) failed to act on the complaint within one week as per the law enacted under the TG-bPASS Act, 2020, the petitioner alleged.
The counsel for the petitioner said that if the GHMC were to simply demolish the structure, the developer would build it back up, since the cost of demolition is borne by the municipal authority using public money.
Hence, GHMC must extract the cost of demolition from the offender, the petitioner’s counsel suggested.
In response, counsel appearing for GHMC stated that they had submitted a show cause notice to the temple on February 13, and after the petitioner’s complaint on the app, a speaking order was issued on March 28, asking the temple to remove the unauthorised construction within 15 days, failing
which the demolition will be carried out by the GHMC and the cost will be extracted from the temple.
After hearing submissions from both parties, the High Court disposed of the petition, while directing the GHMC to give a fair hearing to both the petitioner and the temple, check relevant documents and take a decision in four weeks.
The court added that if the allegations made by the petitioner are found to be true, the GHMC shall take appropriate action and any expenses incurred must be recovered from the Devasthanam.
