The Telangana High Court (HC,) on the 16th of September, gave their verdict and dismissed the Telangana Government’s decision to demolish the years old Errum Manzil to build the State Secretariat.
Errum Manzil is a heritage site which is 150 years old. It was also declared an archaeological site by the State Government in 1981 when Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (AP) were one State. In order to fulfil the needs of the Secretariat, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) also removed Errum Manzil from the heritage list and wished to construct Secretariat buildings at the site.
In the past, opposition parties like the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and the Indian National Congress (INC) conducted several protests and filed petitions in the Telangana High Court against the demolition.
Nawab Fakhrul Mulk built Errum Manzil around 1870. His descendants also opposed the decision of the TRS and demanded the heritage site not be demolished.
Finally, the Telangana High Court ruled out the decision of the State Government to demolish Errum Manzil and issued a verdict about the same.
A bench of judges, headed by Raghavendra Singh Chauhan, the Chief Justice of Telangana and Justice Shameem Akhtar, reviewed the petitions which were pending since the 3rd of June. The Court announced the verdict about the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition.
On the 27th of June, K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR,) the Chief Minister of Telangana, laid the foundation stone for the Secretariat buildings which were worth Rs. 100 crores. However, the opposition parties and heritage activists filed petitions challenging the decision of the State Government and prevented the demolition of Errum Manzil.
Stay tuned for further updates.
