HC urged to direct HYDRA not to demolish resi. bldgs in Kavuri Hills

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court’s division bench, comprising CJ Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, on Thursday directed the deputy collector & tahsildar, Serilingampally mandal, RR district, to hear the petitioners by going through documents furnished by them--sale deeds, permissions obtained by the sarpanch and panchayat secretary--and then take action against them in accordance with law and disposed the writs.

The bench was adjudicating a batch of seven writs filed by employees and businessmen who constructed residential houses (stilt + four floors on 500 square yards & stilt + five floors on 500 square yards) on land situated at Kavuri Hills, Block B, Guttala Begumpet in the mandal.

The petitioners were issued notices on August 3 by the deputy collector & tahsildar U/s. 23 of AP Water Land Trees Act, 2002, for constructing residences within FTL of Durgam Cheruvu intimating them that illegal structures in FTL will be demolished. The petitions were tagged with the Suo Moto writ petition PIL “Durgam Cheruvu” because the buildings constructed by the petitioners fall in FTL.

The CJ bench had passed a series of directions to the government to protect the lake, clearly directing it to remove illegal structures in the FTL. The bench had directed the tahsildar to go through documents furnished by the petitioners and act in accordance with law and disposed off the writs by taking on record the “compliance report” filed by the government furnishing steps taken to protect Durgam Cheruvu from further pollution and making it free of illegal constructions within its FTL.

Writs to suspend sub rule 3 A of GO 33

prescribing local candidature for admissions to MBBS & BDS courses

On Thursday the HC division bench “reserved orders” in the batch of writs filed by aspiring MBBS students challenging the constitutionality of GO 33, dated July 19, 2024, prescribing local candidature of those seeking admissions.

By inserting sub-rule (iii) in the GO (Health and Medical and Family welfare), the government made it clear that a candidate should have studied 9, 10 and Intermediate in State, apart from the clause that they should have resided in State for seven years. If they fulfil these conditions, then only they will be treated as local candidates.

The students filed writs seeking suspension of rule 3 A, more particularly Rule 3 A sub rule (iii) of Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission into MBBS and BDS Courses Rules, 2017 as amended vide GO 33.

Senior counsels D V Seetharama Murthy and Mayur Reddy, while arguing for petitioners, contended that GO is per se illegal and violative of principles of natural justice because a candidate hailing from other States, other than Telangana, who studied in State for four years and resided in for seven years fits into the category of “ local candidate”, whereas a candidate who is born and brought up in State, whose parents and grandparents are from Telangana is treated as “non-local” because he has pursued his “Intermediate” in some other State.

Advocate-General A Sudarshan Reddy informed the bench that the government is following the same procedure and method as followed in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and other States prescribing conditions on candidates, declaring them as “local candidates”.

The government has brought an amendment to GO for the benefit of local students in Telangana. Of the136 aspiring candidates, who applied for medical seats as “ local candidates”, 86 belong to Andhra Pradesh, he contended. All petitioners, seek a direction to government to declare them as local candidates for all purposes of admission into MBBS/BDS pursuant to NEET UG 2024 for MBBS/BDS Admissions 2024-25. Orders in the case are reserved.