Telangana High Court summons State authorities in contempt case

Says land acquired without paying due compensation is ‘unjust’ and ‘unconstitutional’

Hyderabad: Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday summoned Rahul Bojja, Principal Secretary, Irrigation Department; K Ramakrishna Rao, Special Chief Secretary to Finance and Planning Department; Adarsh Surabhi, IAS, and D Subramanyam, Land Acquisition Officer, in a contempt case filed by K Jagadeeshwar and four others of Gadwal, Jogulamba Gadwal district.

Justice Reddy observed that the “State, while exercising its powers of eminent domain, has acquired the land without paying due compensation, thereby compelling the affected persons and land losers to come on the streets to struggle for their livelihood”.

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He further held that “such action on the part of the State is unjust and unconstitutional”. It is the case of the contempt petitioners that his land was acquired for the purpose of Priyadarshini Jurala Project in the year 2009. However, his complaint was that despite the litigation on the acquisition attaining finality before the Supreme Court, compensation was not paid to him by the government.

The court expressed serious dissatisfaction on the authorities for disobeying the court orders and summoned the said authorities by issuing form- I notices to them. Justice Reddy will hear the authorities’ explanation in person on March 28.