Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has directed the endowments department of Telangana to conduct an inquiry into the alleged encroachment of lands belonging to Ganesh Temple in the Neknampur area of Cyberabad.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was disposing a PIL by one M. Jayapal Reddy, a resident of Ranga Reddy district challenging the inaction of authorities in taking action to protect temple lands.

He urged the court to direct the endowments authorities to initiate steps to protect temple lands.

The bench noticed that the petitioner had made a complaint to the authorities in November 2014 pointing out to the inaction in protecting 28 acres of temple land and directed the endowments authorities to look into the petitioner’s complaint and inquire into the issue.

The bench said that if the complaint was found correct in the inquiry, then the concerned authority shall take legal steps to protect temple lands. The bench directed the inquiry officer to give a hearing to the petitioner as well as the person who might be affected or interested in the matter and complete the exercise within eight weeks.

Detention orders struck down by Hyderabad HC

The Hyderabad High Court struck down the detention orders passed by the AP government detaining four alleged red sanders smugglers from Mizoram, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The Chittoor collector had passed the detention order against Riyaz Khan and Hameed Khan of Karnataka, M. Lakshm-anan of Tamil Nadu and Susheel Vikram Mehandi alias Vikram of Mizoram in August 2014 for cutting, storing and transporting red sanders from forests and smuggling it to various destinations.

The detention orders were approved by the State Advisory Board on Preventive Detentions in September 2014 and the government issued GOs in October. The kith and kin of the detenus moved the High Court by filing petitions seeking to declare the action of the authorities as illegal.

The petitioners said the detention order was passed by the in-charge collector in the absence of the regular collector and that under Section 3(2) of the AP Act the collector is the only competent authority to pass the order. They said that the detention order and the material which was furnished to the detenus were in English and Telugu and they were conversant only in Hindi and Tamil.

They said that in the cases which were referred against them in the order they were enlarged on bail and in most of the other cases charge sheets were not filed. After examining the case, law and the Constitution, Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar ruled that the in-charge collector had no power to pass the orders.