HYDRAA removal order paused; land dispute waits
The Telangana High Court has suspended the single-judge direction to remove A.V. Ranganath, leaving the Lothkunta dispute in legal limbo until November 3.
The High Court’s interim order keeps the removal direction on hold while the Lothkunta dispute continues.
The Telangana High Court has temporarily suspended a single-judge order directing the Telangana government to remove A.V. Ranganath as HYDRAA Commissioner. The division bench’s stay keeps the officer in place for now; the file will return on November 3, 2026. The bureaucracy, at least, has received a postponement rather than a conclusion.
The case concerns 40 acres in Survey Nos. 1 and 2 at Lothkunta. The bench also directed Ranganath and Shanta Sriram Constructions Private Limited to maintain status quo over the property, according to published reporting. The company says HYDRAA officials entered the land in breach of earlier court orders. HYDRAA said its staff visited after receiving a letter from the Society to Save Rocks and linked the matter to a separate 119-acre parcel in Secunderabad Cantonment. Those competing claims remain unresolved.
A March 2021 High Court order, later recorded as affirmed on appeal, directed restoration of possession to the company and said the state would need a civil-court declaration of title and a possession decree before interfering. The latest order is interim: it has paused the removal direction, not decided the land dispute or the contempt case. The court has stopped the machinery from moving while everyone argues over which map it is standing on.