₹ 1 lakh cost imposed on HYDRAA for ‘high-handed conduct’

Observing that the fencing of two plots belonging to two women in survey number 100 of Mallapur in the city’s Uppal was an “arbitrary and tyrannical act” by HYDRAA, the Telangana High Court directed HYDRAA to pay ₹ 1 lakh as expenses to the two women.

Justice NV Shravan Kumar of the HC passed a joint order in two separate writ petitions filed by P. Rajya Laxmi and J. Padmini, both over 60 years of age, directing the HYDRAA officials to immediately remove the fencing around the two plots. The judge said that if the fences are not removed, HYDRAA must pay ₹ 1 lakh per day to the petitioners until the fences are removed.

The two women knocked on the HC’s door, filing independent pleas, after HYDRAA fenced their plot of 500 square meters each at Babanagar Cooperative Housing Society Limited in Mallapur in Rangareddy district. They alleged that HYDRAA officials erected fences around their lands despite specific orders from the court declaring them absolute owners of the lands.

To ascertain the facts, the judge appointed an Advocate Commissioner who made it clear that the two women had earlier filed original cases in the court of Additional District Judge, Medchal Malkajgiri and the court had passed orders declaring them absolute owners of the two plots concerned. The court also issued an injunction ordering the authorities to remove the wall erected on the planned properties and prevented the authorities from further interfering with the women’s rights in relation to the two plots of land.

The judge said that once the petitioners’ rights were determined by the court, HYDRAA should not have fenced the lands in question. The order said the authorities had “forcibly fenced” the lands even though it had earlier emphatically observed that fencing or fixing boards should be at the direction of the judicial courts or the HC.