HC restrains T from dispossessing 5 landowners for Musi project | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: Telangana high court has restrained the state govt from dispossessing five landowners whose properties are proposed to be acquired for the Musi riverfront development project, while seeking detailed responses to allegations that mandatory safeguards under the land acquisition law were bypassed.Justice K Sharath passed the interim order while hearing petitions filed by five landowners questioning the acquisition of 9.08 acres in Dargah Khaleez Khan village, Gandipet, for the Musi project and related works along the riverbank.The petitioners contended that the authorities had sought to acquire their land by exempting it from the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, without properly considering their objections.Appearing for the petitioners, senior counsel K Vivek Reddy argued that the land falls within a bio-conservation zone and is located barely half a kilometre from the Himayatsagar reservoir.The petitioners alleged multiple statutory and procedural violations in the acquisition process, claiming that the authorities bypassed mandatory social impact assessments and other safeguards without establishing public interest or urgency.They further alleged that their objections were mechanically rejected, that no detailed project report was placed in the public domain, and that the authorities sought to acquire a strip of 100 to 200 metres from their land despite specifying a 50-metre riverfront buffer for the project.Opposing the pleas, additional advocate general T Rajinikanth Reddy urged the court not to grant interim relief and sought time to file a detailed counter-affidavit. “All the statutory procedures are being followed and only after all the mandatory compliances are fulfilled, the acquisition process will proceed,” Rajinikanth Reddy added.The additional AG also placed before the court judgments in similar acquisition matters, including those relating to the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project in Andhra Pradesh. He informed the court that the petitioners would not be dispossessed until a proper inquiry, as mandated under the Act, was completed and sought time to file counters.Recording the submission, Justice Sharath directed the authorities not to dispossess the petitioners from the subject land and adjourned the matter by two weeks for further hearing.