Visakhapatnam: GVMC embarks on task of settling 719 pending High Court cases

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation is working to settle pending court cases with the help of legal interns.

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has embarked on a special task of settling pending court cases, particularly at the Andhra Pradesh High Court (APHC). Legal interns from Damodaram Sanjeevayya National Law University-Visakhapatnam (DSNLU-V) have joined the legal team of the corporation to settle the cases in an amicable and time-bound manner.

According to information available from the GVMC’s legal cell on Thursday, a total of 719 cases under nine sections are pending in the High Court. Around 76 per cent (548 cases) are related to the Town Planning Department of the GVMC and 11 per cent (82 cases) out of all the remaining sections belong to the Revenue Department.

The number of cases relating to other sections are Public Health (34 cases), Engineering (32), Urban Community Development (13), General Establishment (6), Zone-VI (2), and Zone VII & Secretary Section (one each).

This apart, 93 cases were solved in the last 13 months (January 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024). About 94 per cent (88 cases) of the resolved cases were from the Town Planning Department alone. The cases disposed of in the remaining eight sections are negligible in number.

According to GVMC sources, many factors are cited for the delay in hearing cases in the High Court. Frequent adjournment of cases is one of the main reasons due to lack of adequate information of cases from the authorities, non-availability of officers concerned during trial of cases, and lack of judicial knowledge on some sensitive cases. The GVMC has been facing many cases from the Town Planning Department as this is the one of the key departments which deals with the clearance of properties like residential, commercial establishments, housing sites, roads and vacant plots.

Confirming the number of pending court cases in the High Court, GVMC Commissioner C.M. Saikanth Varma said that the GVMC is taking all possible steps to clear the cases at the earliest. In the last 13 months, 93 cases have been resolved, majorly from the Town Planning Department.

“We are vigorously pursuing the resolution of pending cases in the High Court in favour of GVMC. We also have a special legal cell which looks into the matter and have also hired legal interns from the National Law University, Visakhapatnam to speed up the process,” Mr. Saikanth Varma told The Hindu on Thursday.