The Telangana High Court on Monday (March 16) directed the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party to file counter affidavit within three weeks in the two PIL petitions challenging allotment, during its rule, of 11 acres of land to BRS party for its office.

A bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin earlier issued notices to the Chief Secretary, HMDA Commissioner, the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration and the BRS party on July 18, 2023. No counter affidavit was filed by BRS in the matter since then. The bench made it clear that it was the last opportunity for the BRS to file the counter affidavit.

Counsel for BRS T.V. Ramana Rao contended that the two PIL pleas were politically motivated. There was no public interest in the two petitions. He said the petitioners targetted BRS and had not raised any objections when similar land allotments were made to political parties.

He sought four weeks of time to file counter affidavit. Additional Advocate-General Mohammed Imran Khan informed the bench that the State government had already filed counter affidavit in the matter. While the Forum for Good Governance filed one PIL petition, the second one was filed by an advocate A. Venkatarami Reddy questioning the decision of BRS government in allotting land in prime area worth hundreds of crores of lands to BRS party.

The allotment was made for a price of ₹3.41 crore while the market price of it was far higher, the petitioners contended. The petitioners maintained that BRS party already had an office abutting Road No. 12 in Banjara Hills and still the 11 acres of land was alienated to BRS party in the guise of construction of Institute of Excellence and Human Resource Development.