Janwada farmhouse case: TS HC gives relief to KTR, sets aside NGT order

Hyderabad: Telangana High Court gave relief to Municipal minister KT Rama Rao after it set aside the National Green Tribunal's (NGT) order related to the alleged construction of a farmhouse at Janwada.

The tribunal had passed the order calling the construction a violation of GO 111. KTR had denied being the owner of the farmhouse.

The high court said the National Green Tribunal at Chennai has no jurisdiction to hear the case related to the alleged environmentally hazardous farmhouse' of municipal minister KT Rama Rao.

The HC held that filing a petition against him without verifying the ownership of the farmhouse was wrong. The NGT had issued notices to Rama Rao and the State government on the illegal construction of a farmhouse at Janwada on Hyderabad's outskirts on a petition filed by TPCC president A Revanth Reddy.

It may be recalled that TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy filed the case in NGT on the farmhouse constructed and being used by KTR at Janwad-Mirzaguda village of Shankarpalli Mandal in Rangareddy District in violation of GO 111 issued by Municipal Administration Department.

NGT also set up a committee to look into the allegations of violation of the provisions of the GO 111. Challenging the NGT order, Rama Rao approached High Court by filing a writ petition. Counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the respondent was politically motivated and the petitioner had no connection or relation with the construction activity, much less the ownership.

Farmhouse owner B Pradeep Reddy filed another petition questioning the NGT order, claiming that he was the owner and in possession of the land admeasuring 3 acres 30 guntas and that he purchased the farmhouse built on the land admeasuring 1210 sq yards under two registered sale deeds. He informed the court that he constructed the farmhouse after obtaining permission from Gram Panchayat.

The High Court Division Bench comprising Justice A Rajashekar Reddy and Justice P Naveen Rao heard the arguments of senior counsel S. Niranjan Reddy on behalf of KTR, Raghuram on behalf of Pradeep Reddy, owner of the land, and S S Prasad on behalf of Revanth Reddy.

Earlier in its Interim order on June 10, -2020, the court had stayed the Order passed by the NGT constituting a Committee of Experts to visit the site of Farm House and submit a report on violations if any and consequent actions to be taken.

S Niranjan Reddy in his arguments submitted that the case filed by Revanth Reddy before NGT is with malicious and malafide intention of somehow dragging the minister KTR into the proceedings despite knowing fully well that he was not the owner of the land on which the construction is made and he had only taken it on lease.

The petitioner also argued that the NGT issued directions that have a bearing on his property without the true owner of the property being made a party to the proceedings and, therefore, the impugned order passed was in clear violation of principles of natural justice.

After hearing the petitioner's contentions, the bench set aside the NGT orders on the ground that the complainant before the NGT didn't make the owner a party and found fault with the NGT ordering a High Power Committee probe into the legality of the construction of the farmhouse without notifying the owner.