The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Saturday rejected the house motion petition moved by the State government against the stay imposed by Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy on construction of houses under Navaratnalu - Pedalandariki Illu scheme in the wake of the notification of Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami’s transfer as the Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh High Court.
The government has since decided to go for a regular vacation filing on October 11, according to official sources.
Friday’s stay order resulted in the quashing of guideline number 3 in G.O.Ms.No.367 (dated August 19, 2019) and clauses (x) (xi) and (xii) of G.O.Ms.No.488 (dated December 2, 2019) and (b) and (d) of G.O.Ms.No.99 (March 31, 2020).
Justice Satyanarayana Murthy directed that the deeds of conveyance registered in favour of the allottees should be cancelled and D-form patta given to them in strict compliance with clause 3 of G.O.Ms.No.367.
Besides, the stay resulted in the quashing of guideline number 2 of G.O.No.367, which was held by Justice Satyanarayana Murthy as against Articles 14, 15(1) and 39 of the Constitution and violative of Articles 7 and 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 26 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. With this, the government is obliged to allot house sites to men and transpersons also on a par with women subject to their eligibility.
The Judge had also directed the State to form a special committee consisting of experts from the Central Pollution Control Board and the Ministries of Housing and Urban Affairs and Health and Family Welfare to examine the issues involved in the procedure of allotment of the house sites and submit a report within one month.
Justice Satyanarayana Murthy said in his order that the allotment of one cent in municipal areas and 1.5 cents in villages was inadequate for housing and that the government should have examined the adequacy of drinking water and drainage facilities, and taken into account the environment impact and health and fire hazards insisting on the allottees to undertake construction of the houses.
Also, the Judge observed that the State did not follow the World Health Organisation’s Housing and Health Guidelines which provided evidence-based recommendations for healthy housing and interventions required.
