HC notices to Centre, State over GHMC trifurcation

The Telangana High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Central and the State governments in a writ petition challenging the trifurcation of the erstwhile Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, contending it was in conflict with a circular connected to 2027 census issued by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 

The Additional Solicitor General of India, appearing for both the Census Commissioner and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, along with the Advocate General, appearing for the State government, sought three weeks of time to file their counter affidavits. The Bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin, hearing the plea, gave time of one week to reply to the counter affidavits. 

The petitioner D. Guruva Reddy, a businessman, assailed the GO Ms no. 55 through which the State government carved two new municipal corporations out of the existing GHMC by merging some surrounding municipalities, maintaining that it was against the provisions of the Census Act 1948-read with Census Rules-1990. According to the petitioner, the Census Commissioner in a notificiation issued on June 16 of 2025 declared the reference date for the census as March 1, 2027. 

In another notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, it was directed to complete house listing operations between April 1 and September 30 of 2026. The Union Government also said the Directorates of Census Operations were required to send all jurisdictional changes as on July 1 of 2025. The trifurcation of the GHMC was in violation of the rules prescribed for the Census, the petitioner contended.