The Telangana High Court refused to dispense with the personal appearance of the Commissioner of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA)- A V Ranganath, in a contempt plea over the alleged forcible dispossession of an individual's property in violation of a 2024 court order.

The court similarly also refused to accept the explanation offered by the Tahsildar of Shamshabad Mandal for his non-appearance.

The single judge bench of Justice C V Bhaskar Reddy, declined to accept the HYDRAA Commissioner's official engagements such as taking measures to tackle the water scarcity likely to be caused by the Super El Nino effect, cited as grounds to condone the contravention of notices issued to him for appearance on Wednesday [11.11.2026].

“…When specific directions were issued for their personal appearance, respondent No. 3, instead of appearing before this Court and explaining his conduct, has sought exemption by citing his official engagements and enforcement activities…”, the Court observed.

The Court further directed that the Director General of Police, Telangana, shall ensure the personal appearance of -Commissioner, HYDRAA, before the Court on the next date of hearing. Similarly, the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City, is required to ensure the personal appearance of respondent No. 2-Tahsildar, Shamshabad Mandal, on the said date.

To recap, the petitioner has alleged that the respondent authorities had forcibly taken possession of the subject property and dismantled the existing structure there in violation of a court order. It was also alleged that the authorities demarcated the boundaries of the disputed property without issuing a prior notice.

After hearing this on the last date, Form-I notices were issued to the officers, directing them to appear in person and answer the charge of wilful disobedience of its orders.

The affidavit filed by the Commissioner, HYDRAA stated that he was required to discharge pressing official duties, including the initiation of enforcement drives against illegal commercial borewells and unauthorised groundwater extraction, which in turn contributed to the depletion of local groundwater levels.

The affidavit recorded that HYDRAA had recently seized unauthorised borewells in areas including Sunnam Cheruvu, Thammidikunta and Fox Sagar, as well as unpermitted water tankers. Tacking these issues were urgent in view of the impending super El Niño effect, which has the potential to detrimentally affect the availability of drinking water in Hyderabad, it was submitted by the Commissioner.

R. Sameer Ahmed, Standing Counsel appearing for the HYDRAA Commissioner, hence, sought dispensation of personal appearance citing these reasons.

The Government Pleader appearing for R2-Tahsildar, submitted that the officer was presently engaged in processing and disposing of pending applications, as per a Government Order on 'regularisation of certain encroachments on unobjectionable Government land and Urban Land Ceiling surplus land with permanent structures' occupied prior to 02.06.2014. It was submitted that given the pendency of several such applications and the necessity of his presence in office for their disposal, R2 could not appear before the Court.

The court, however, refused to accept the above reasoning. With regard to the Tahsildar's explanation, the court held that pending applications cannot be a ground to 'disregard the directions' issued by the court.

“…The officials holding responsible public offices are expected to respect the orders of this Court and ensure their compliance. The reasons furnished by respondent Nos. 2 and 3 are not satisfactory and do not justify their non-appearance despite specific directions issued in Form-I notices”, the Court held further with respect to the non-appearance of both officers.

The matter is now listed on November 16.