Telangana HC extends stay on secretariat demolition

The division bench comprising of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy was dealing with the public interest litigation filed by retired professor PL Vishweshwara Rao and Dr Cheruku Sudhakar seeking a stay on secretariat demolition.

The court on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over the report submitted by the Pollution Control Board (PCB) and State-level environment impact assessment authority (SEIAA).

"Instead of being straight forward, the PCB and SEIAA are acting smart," the court said. The court further observed that readying the land for construction relates to the demolishing the old buildings and the clearance from the environment committee is needed.

Meanwhile, the assistant solicitor general told the court that they have not received any information from the central environment committee and requested to provide four days time i.e, until Monday.

Observing that the central government's opinion mandatory in the issue, the High Court adjourned the matter to July 17.