Telangana High Court orders removal of encroachers from Nizam-era cow shelter in Hyderabad, gives 2 weeks for eviction

The judge also directed the authorities to approach the Hyderabad police and seek police protection for executing the order, and instructed the
Hyderabad police commissioner to extend full cooperation in removing the encroachments.

Trust established in 1927

The petitioner, SCPA, is a private trust established in 1927 and has been running a veterinary hospital and a goshala near the Musallam Jung bridge on the Musi River. The petition before the court sought directions to GHMC not make any addition, alteration, construction or laying of roads, etc., on the society’s property and sought directions to remove existing encroachments.

Representing the society, Senior Advocate K Hariharan submitted that the petitioner trust has been running without any profit motive, with paramount consideration for the welfare of animals. He submitted that a road has been laid in the property and a part of the land has been encroached and that the petitioner trust is deprived of rendering services to the animals.

He also submitted that though 4,000 square yards of land was originally allotted to the trust, which was historically chaired by the chief justice of the erstwhile high court of Andhra Pradesh and senior officials of the then Nizam’s government, only about 2,096 square yards are remaining and out of that, GHMC has laid a road, and a hotel has also come up illegally.

The government pleader and the standing counsel for GHMC, on their part, submitted that a portion of the land used for the veterinary hospital was still being used as a goshala. Taking note of the submissions, the court recorded that the land used by the trust as a veterinary hospital and goshala has been encroached upon by a private person for the purpose of running a hotel.

Subsequently, the court directed the respondent authorities to follow due process of law, remove encroachments on the disputed land within two weeks, and report compliance.