The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing in the Kancha Gachibowli land issue to November 16 after Telangana sought additional time to file an affidavit defending its position on the disputed Hyderabad land. The court granted the state three weeks, although its counsel had requested four weeks.
Karanam Shravan Kumar, appearing for the state government, sought the extension to submit an additional affidavit addressing the state’s contention that the land does not fall within a forest area. The request was made during the proceedings on Monday, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle.
The case concerns approximately 400 acres at Kancha Gachibowli, where large-scale tree felling had earlier triggered the Supreme Court’s suo motu intervention. The court had registered proceedings after reports of trees being cut without the requisite permissions.
The latest order keeps the dispute before the court while the state prepares its additional submission. At the centre of the case is the classification of the land and the permissions required for activity on the site. The state’s position, as reported in the proceedings, is that the property does not constitute forest land. The material supplied does not include the full text of the state’s affidavit, the court’s detailed directions or a final determination on the land’s legal status.
The dispute places the governance of large urban land parcels under judicial scrutiny. Kancha Gachibowli is in Hyderabad, where land classification can determine which environmental safeguards, statutory permissions and administrative procedures apply before trees are removed or land is used. In this case, the reported tree felling has made the question of permissions central to the court proceedings.
The proceedings also highlight the institutional tension that can arise when state authorities seek to establish the development or legal status of urban land after activity has already taken place. The Supreme Court’s suo motu action means the issue is being examined by the court independently of a conventional private petition, based on the reported environmental incident.
The immediate procedural development is that Telangana must now file its additional affidavit within the time granted by the court. The next hearing is scheduled for November 16. The supplied report does not state whether the court issued any further directions on activity at the site, tree protection, restoration or future land use.
Until the next hearing, the central questions before the court remain the legal classification of the Kancha Gachibowli land, the permissions required for the reported tree felling and the adequacy of the state’s explanation. No final finding on those issues has been reported in the supplied material.
