The Andhra Pradesh government has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in Supreme Court, challenging the stay imposed by the High Court on the construction of houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) under the ‘Pedalandariki Illu’ scheme in the R5 Zone in Amaravati.
The State contended that house sites were allotted to about 50,000 people. The construction of houses was sanctioned and set to commence in terms of the Supreme Court order dated May 17, 2023.
It was at that stage a batch of writ petitions as filed in the High Court ‘to flog the dead horse’. The same action (allotment of house sites and connected matters) was a subject of litigation in the apex court, but instead of dismissing those writ petitions, the High Court proceeded not only to hear the matter again but also overruled the apex court order.
The State insisted that the High Court order, therefore, amounts to a complete judicial overreach and judicial impropriety as the High Court sat in an appeal over the apex court verdict and imposed a stay on the construction of houses.
The High Court failed to note that it was a settled law that High Courts, in their writ jurisdiction, cannot render the Supreme Court orders ineffective, by citing some case laws.
Further, the State said that the interpretation that the allotment of house sites could be carried out as per the interim order of the apex court but the constructions could be done only after the writ petitions were decided was superfluous and resulted in an absurd outcome since the construction of houses on the sites was a natural corollary to the allotment of land deeds.
The State said it must also be noted that the ‘Pedalandariki Illu’ scheme was intended to fall under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Housing for All scheme launched by the Central government in 2015 and in order to be eligible thereunder, the beneficiaries ought to be given ownership of housing plots.
