Telangana HC demolishes KCR govt plan to build assembly at Irrum Manzil

HYDERABAD: In a huge setback to the state government’s plan to build a new Assembly complex, the Telangana high court on Monday set aside the state’s June 18 cabinet decision to raze the 150-year-old Irrum Manzil situated near the busy Panjagutta area in the city. The state was planning to raise a legislature complex here to house its Assembly, Legislative Council and residential quarters for speaker, deputy speaker and council chairman.

Demolishing the state’s arguments, the bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther made it clear that the state could not afford the luxury of forgetting that destruction of heritage buildings robs people of their identity and deprives the city of its sense of uniqueness.
“While it is important to plan for the future, it is equally important to protect, preserve and promote the past,” the bench said while hearing a batch of public interest petitions filed by Deccan Archaeological And Cultural Research Institute, Dr Mir Asghar Hussain, journalist Pasham Yadagiri of ‘Zindabad Hyderabad’, professor P L Visweshwar Rao and a few others.
In its 110-page judgment, the bench said that a bare perusal of facts revealed that the state had ignored essential provisions of the law while taking the decision.
State ignored regulations, says court
Finding fault with the state’s argument that Irrum Manzil did not have any protection under its new Heritage Act as it had repealed Regulation 13, the bench said: “The state ignored that Regulation 13 of the Zonal Regulations, 1981, was framed under Section 59 of the Urban Areas Act by the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda) which recognised Irrum Manzil as a heritage structure and accorded protection. The state forgot the fact that it did not have the power to repeal Regulation 13 because that power is vested with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority alone. Hence, the very repeal is illegal.”
The bench also said that the government overlooked the fact that under the Master Plan, 2010, certain areas of Hyderabad have been declared as Special Reservation Zones. These Special Reservation Zones incorporate “heritage buildings and heritage sites”.
“The government has ignored the scope and ambit of the HMDA Act. Under Section 18 of this Act, the power to develop the land is bestowed only on HMDA whose permission is essential even to modify the heritage structures. For change of land use too there is a special procedure under section 19 of the HMDA Act,” the bench said, pointing out that the state had violated this norm too in respect of Irrum Manzil.
The bench also reminded the state that it had earlier passed an order asking it to seek the HC’s permission before demolishing or altering any heritage structure under Regulation 13.