Hyderabad: A senior journalist Pasham Yadagiri, president of Hyderabad Zindabd NGO challenged the constitutional validity of Telangana Heritage Act, 2017. The case was presented before the bench of Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar and Justice R Subhash Reddy. Justice Reddy, who hails from Telangana recused himself from the case.
In 2017, KCR’s Government wanted to demolish the 150-year old building to construct a new State Legislative Assembly and argued that Errum Manzil was not a heritage structure as per the Telangana Heritage Act, 2017. It went to the extent of deleting the Regulation 13 for the purpose of demolition.
Errum Manzil is covered under the Zoning Regulation 13 which gives special reservation to heritage buildings and heritage precincts.
In September 2019, on the petition of Pasham Yadgiri and others, the division bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh and Justice Shameem Akhter rejected the state cabinet’s decision to demolish the structure and agreed that the Errum Manzil is a heritage site and needs to be protected.
A three-member team from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) inspected the structure and declared “the Errum Manzil building is structurally sound in sub-structure and in super structure . . . The condition of the building is a mere result of negligence . . . It requires minor attention in some places due to improper repair and maintenance which led to deterioration of the structural and non-structural elements at few places.”
Errum Manzil was a palace built in 1870 by Nawab Safdaar Jung Musheer-ud-daula Fakhrul Mulk- a noble man of princely state of Hyderabad.
Built in Indo-European Baroque style, the palace is situated on a hillock in-between Khairatabad and Punjagutta just behind the Errum Manzil Metro station.
With over 150 rooms with French furniture, the palace was used for grand events and royal banquets. Now, the palace hosts Government office, and tourists are not allowed to visit this marvelous palace.