PUSHPALATA KANODIA Vs. STATE OF TELANGANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) With the consent of all the parties, these four writ petitions are heard together and being disposed of by this common order, as the parties are common and the issue involved is one and the same.

(2.) The property involved in all these writ petitions is the building bearing Municipal No. 4-1-1229 (Gulshan Manzil), Boggulkunta, Hyderabad (hereinafter referred to as 'the subject property'). There are two sets of writ petitions, namely (i) W.P. Nos. 30821 of 2018 & 10580 of 2019; (ii) W.P. Nos. 17583 of 2019 and 14765 of 2020. While the first set of writ petitions is filed by the same tenant seeking a direction to the GHMC officials not to demolish the subject property, the second set of writ petitions is filed by the co-owners of the subject property seeking a direction to the official respondents to carry out demolition process. For the sake of convenience, hereinafter the parties will be referred to as 'the owners' and 'the tenant'.

(3.) The contention of the owners is that they have inherited the subject property from their ancestors under a registered settlement deed. By the time of purchase of the subject property by their ancestors on 10.02.1948, the subject property was 40 years old. In the year 1972, the middle portion of the subject property was given on lease to one Susheel Kumar Kanodia, the husband of the tenant, on monthly rent of Rs.400/-. After the expiry of Susheel Kumar Kanodia, his wife, the tenant, continued to be in occupation of the subject property. In the year 1987, certain portion of the roof had collapsed causing serious injuries to the inmates of the building. Since the subject property is in dilapidated condition, the owners submitted a representation as early as on 26.08.1989 to the municipal authorities with a request to take necessary steps for its demolition. Even the Commissioner of GHMC had issued proceedings on 10.06.2003 directing the Engineering and Town Planning Wings to identify the dangerous/dilapidated structures and issue notices to its owners/occupiers and to take action for demolition of the same. Subsequently, a notice under Section 459 of GHMC Act, 1955 (for short, 'the Act') was issued on 15.07.2013 inviting objections from the owners/occupiers as to why the structures should not be demolished. On 26.08.2018, the owners had approached the Industrial Consultancy Services, JNTUH, College of Engineering, for a structural stability report, by paying necessary fee. The JNTUH submitted its Structural Stability Report on 06.05.2019 with a finding that the building in present condition is not structurally safe and stable for habitation and the roof slab may collapse at any time due to rains. Basing on the said Report, the owners made representations to the official respondents on 09.05.2019/01.07.2019, followed by a legal notice on 16.07.2019. As a result, on 21.05.2019, the official respondents have issued a notice under Section 456 of the Act, requesting the owners/tenants to vacate the premises. However, so far, the demolition process has not taken place. Aggrieved by the inaction of the official respondents in not taking further steps to demolish the dilapidated structures, the owners of the subject property have filed W.P. Nos. 17583 of 2019 and 14765 of 2020, whereas, challenging the notice dated 21.05.2019, the tenant has filed W.P. No. 10580 of 2019.