HYDERABAD : The executive engineer, deputy executive engineer and assistant executive engineer (high court buildings) of the Roads and Buildings department’s south division were asked in a letter dated May 16 not to begin demolition work at the “H Block” where the Zenana building is located.

The demolition of the “H-Block High Court Legal Services Committee building, dog canal, and the structures abutting the same” for the construction of a multi-level parking lot was previously sanctioned administratively in a letter from the High Court’s Registrar dated April 15. The ruling was made in response to a writ petition (no. 735 of 2023) that asked for increased parking space on the grounds of the Telangana High Court. In essence, it also involves demolishing the Zenana structure.

Heritage activists from Hyderabad were outraged by it, and they called a conference last week to denounce the action. Sajjad Shahid, a distinguished citizen and local historian, wrote to the chief judge of the Telangana high court to request that the ancient Victoria Zenana building not be demolished.

A fountain from the Qutb Shahi era can be seen in the threatened area. The fountain dates back to the period when Hyderabad was created by Mohd Quli Qutb Shah, the fourth king of the Golconda dynasty (1518-1687), and Sajjad Shahid remarked at the conference last week that it was uncertain what would become of it.

The historic building appears to have had an effect because it is currently safe. It should be noted that it was simple for the state government to issue such decrees, as evidenced by the 2010 government order No. 47 that removed the Victoria Zenana building from the state’s list of protected monuments.

History

In fact, Mahboob Ali Pasha, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad (1869–1911), built the Victoria Zenana building, one of the city’s heritage buildings. It is one of the symbols of Hyderabad’s constructed history before the city was modernised and rebuilt following the Musi River Flood in 1908 by the seventh and final Nizam, Osman Ali Khan (1911–1948). Ironically, the Telangana High Court was built as one of the modern structures included in the last Nizam’s modernization.