HYDRAA swings, court asks for the rulebook

The Telangana High Court has asked Serilingampally’s tahsildar to appear in person and file a date-wise counter in a Kondapur demolition case tied to HYDRAA, after a petitioner alleged a compound wall and watchman’s room on a 350‑sq‑yd plot in Survey No. 60 were razed without notice on November 1, 2025, while nearby Survey No. 59 is government land. This is from Tuesday’s hearing in a petition by Pemmasani Sudharani; the matter is posted to August 6, with the tahsildar told to keep showing up until then, according to a Telugu daily’s courtroom report.

In court, the government’s counsel said the tahsildar had only sought protection for government land and did not order demolitions. HYDRAA’s counsel Sameer Ahmed said the agency acted on inputs from revenue officials and was unaware of a 2022 High Court ruling the petitioner cites. Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar directed officials to produce a detailed, dated record; the judge was also quoted as defending Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti’s recent intervention in HYDRAA matters and remarking that officials, not private citizens, were misleading courts. These are reported oral observations; the court’s written order for this case was not available on the High Court site at the time of writing.

Separate, independently reported proceedings this month saw Justice Jukanti order the state to replace HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath, citing repeated alleged violations and dozens of pending contempt cases; Ranganath filed an affidavit with an unconditional apology and denied entering disputed property after court orders. Different case, same theme: agencies need to follow orders before they follow hunches.

The state’s job is to protect public land and citizens’ rights at the same time. The court has now asked for the paperwork that shows how that balance was struck here. On August 6, the file will have to speak for itself.