© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A Telangana High Court bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin on Thursday expressed strong displeasure at the government’s continued failure to file counter-affidavits in listed matters and observed that a specific date is usually given “due to some seriousness or urgency” and that the “whole purpose gets defeated” when counter-affidavits are not filed on time.
The matter pertained to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition challenging the allotment of 2,900 acres of reserve forest land in the Vikarabad district for a Navy radar station. On Thursday, before the start of the day’s session, the counsel for the Centre and the state government sought three weeks’ time to file their counter affidavits.
“We may generally observe that the state is taking longer than expected time in filing counter-affidavits. So, when it is a question of filing counter-affidavits, it seems there is some difficulty. Otherwise, for instructions or memos, you are ready within one week. But that does not solve the problem,” the bench observed.
When the counsel pressed for more time, the bench added, “Till now, we have been liberally extending the time.” The bench recalled that the matter was last adjourned on October 15. “Today is 13th November. When we give a date, the reason is that there is some seriousness in the matter or urgency. Otherwise, we adjourn it for two or three weeks. The whole purpose gets defeated,” the bench added, even as the counsels expressed their apology.
Adjourning the matter for three weeks, the bench further observed, “Take this message to your colleagues also asking for further time for filing counter affidavit.” It also remarked that failure to file counter-affidavits again will attract costs. The matter is next posted for hearing in three weeks.
The PIL, filed in 2020 by a society named Damagundum Forest Protection JAC-Save Damagundam has raised severe concerns regarding the environmental impact, compensatory afforestation, and the potential effects of low-frequency radiation from the very-low frequency radar project in the 2,900 acres of land allotted by the state government in Vikarabad.
