HYDRAA slapped with Rs.1 lakh fine by Telangana High Court for illegally fencing private plots

Justice N V Shravan Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday imposed costs of Rs 1 lakh on the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) for illegally fencing private plots and directed that the fencing be removed immediately, failing which the agency must pay Rs 1 lakh per day until compliance.

The order came in writ petitions filed by Jonnalagadda Padmini and Praharraju Rajya Lakshmi, who asserted ownership over Plot Nos. 184 and 185, each admeasuring 500 square yards in Survey No. 100 of Babanagar Cooperative Housing Society, Mallapur Village, Uppal Mandal. The Court considered the report of an Advocate Commissioner appointed earlier, who inspected the site and



confirmed that the petitioners’ plots were located within a larger fenced area measuring about 1,804 square yards. 

The Commissioner noted that the entire land had been enclosed with chain-linked barbed wire and that a signboard of HYDRAA had been displayed at the site. Counsel for the petitioners pointed out that the civil courts had already decreed that the petitioners were the absolute owners and possessors of the respective plots. The trial court had also granted a mandatory injunction directing removal of constructions abutting the plots and restrained interference with their possession. It was submitted that the decrees had attained finality and were not challenged in appeal.