Telangana High Court had dismissed a PIL petition filed five years ago questioning re-organisation of districts and creation of new ones in the State.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili, observing that the scope of the court for intervention in the matter ‘was very limited’, said the petitioners failed to point out any infringement of rights in creation of new districts. There were 10 districts when separate Telangana State was carved out of erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014.
On October 11, 2016, Telangana government issued GO MS 240 paving way for creation of new districts. With the creation of new ones, the total number of districts in the State now reached 33. Questioning this, some social workers (including a couple of journalists) filed a PIL petition seeking to declare creation of the new districts illegal and arbitrary.
They contended that formation of new districts was in conflict with the provisions of Telangana Districts (Formation) Act-1974 and the Telangana Districts (Formation) Rules-2016. The bench, in its verdict, noted that law empowered the State to create new districts and alter boundaries of the existing ones.
The petitioners claimed that representations from different sections of people were not looked into or considered by the government while creating new districts. But the petitions were unable to establish mala fides, extraneous consideration or arbitrariness in formation of new districts, the bench said.
“Therefore... judicial review cannot be exercised keeping in view the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case,” the judgement said.
