Telangana High Court on Tuesday declined to grant relief in a writ petition seeking a direction to declare Section 21 of the Telangana Apartments (Promotion of Construction and Ownership) Act-1987 as ultra vires and unconstitutional.
Section 21 of the Act empowers the apartment association to disconnect supply of essential services, including water and power to the flat occupants. The petition was filed by M/s Bollant Industries Private Limited represented by its managing director Srikanth Bolla having flat on sixth floor of Babukhan Millennium Centre in Somajiguda of Hyderabad.
The petitioner’s counsel contended that disruption in supply of essential services amounted to denial of Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution. When an Act empowered an apartment association to impose serious penal measures like disconnection of water or electricity, provisions like giving an opportunity to the flat owner to explain his or her case should also have been incorporated in the same Act.
