Municipal authorities are statutorily obligated to act against unauthorized construction upon receipt of a complaint, and courts, while upholding town planning schemes, may direct authorities to perform their duty consistently with due process of law.

ORDER:

Questioning inaction on the part of the respondents No.2 to 4 in taking action pursuant to the representation of the petitioner dated 17.03.2026 to take action against the illegal construction carried out by the respondents No.5 and 6 in respect of residential property in Ward No.8 bearing House No.2-123, admeasuring 667.00 square yards, situated at Mankhal Revenue village under Thukkuguda Municipality, Maheshwaram Mandal, Ranga Reddy district, (subject property) petitioner filed the present writ petition with a consequential prayer to direct the respondents No.2 to 4 to forthwith to demolish the illegal and unauthorized construction carried out by the respondents No.5 and 6.

2. The learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner is the absolute owner and possessor of the subject property by virtue of registered gift deed bearing Document No.4244/21 dated 13.02.2021 and presently residing at Hyderabad. Taking advantage of his absence at the subject property and his health conditions, unofficial respondents No.5 and 6 have illegally trespassed into the subject property and have been carrying out unauthorized construction and raising structure thereon without obtaining any valid permission from the competent authority.

3. In this regard, petitioner made a representation dated 17.03.2026 to the respondent No.3 to take immediate action and to demolish the illegal structure made on the subject property however, the official respondents did not take any action thereon. Hence, the petitioner filed the present writ petition.

4. On the other hand, the learned Standing Counsel Smt. M.Bhagyasri appearing for the official respondents would submit that the representation dated 17.03.2026 will be considered, if not already considered, and appropriate action would be initiated, in accordance with law, and would submit to pass appropriate orders.

5. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the official respondents and perused the material made available on the record.

6. The main grievance of the petitioner is that though he brought to the notice of the official respondents, by way of representation dated 17.03.2026, about the illegal/unauthorised construction at the subject property, the official respondents have failed to initiate any action against the illegal construction made by the unofficial respondents No.5 and 6.

7. Since this Court, time and again, directed the Municipal Authorities to initiate action against the illegal constructions by following due process of law, it is noticed that the authorities are failing to initiate action against the illegal constructions. However, in some of the cases, authorities are issuing statutory notices and thereafter not proceeding further to initiate further course of action unless writ petitions are filed for not considering complaints/ representations made to civic authorities.

8. It is not out of place to mention Section 7(6) of the Telangana State Building Permission Approval and Self Certification System (TS-BPASS) Act, 2020 (for short ‘the TS-BPASS Act’) which also encourages citizens to put on notice to the Civic Authorities regarding unauthorized constructions. Section 7(6) of the TS-BASS Act is extracted for reference.

“7. Approval of Building Permissions-

….

(6) Citizens shall be encouraged to bring to the notice of Municipality and District Collector cases where unauthorized construction or construction in violation of or in excess of permissions, in the manner prescribed. The identity of such informers shall be kept confidential. All such cases shall