The Telangana High Court on Friday refused to pass stay orders on suspension of all the three BJP MLAs from the Assembly.

The court dismissed the plea of the three legislators to direct the Legislature Secretary to hand over to them suspension orders and video recording of the House proceedings to them.

Justice Shameen Akhtar, who had Thursday reserved interim orders, pronounced the same on Friday.

Raghunandan Rao, Eatala Rajender, and T. Raja Singh had filed a petition challenging their suspension from the House for the entire business session.

The court had on Wednesday ordered notice to Legislature Secretary Narasimha Charyulu on the petition by the BJP MLAs.

However, petitioners’ counsel D. Prakash informed the court that despite all the efforts, the notice from the High Court Registry could not be served to the Legislature Secretary.

The MLAs argued that their suspension was against the rules of the Legislative Assembly and the Constitution. They alleged that they were suspended without giving them a suspension order. They had pleaded to the court to lift their suspension and allow them to attend the session.

The MLAs sought direction declaring the action of the Legislature Secretary in suspending them as illegal and in violation of the Rules of Procedure and conduct of business in the Assembly, as well as Articles 14, 21, and 194 of the Constitution.

Advocate General B. S. Prasad again submitted to the court not to intervene in the legislative affairs. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court issued another notice to the Legislature Secretary directing him to file a counter for a full-fledged hearing.

The court adjourned the hearing by four weeks.

All three MLAs of BJP were suspended from the Assembly for the entire session by Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Monday.

Taking strong exception to the commencement of the budget session without the Governor’s address, the BJP legislators tried to disrupt the proceedings.

On a resolution moved by the government, the Speaker announced their suspension for the entire session.

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the State Legislature Secretary on a petition by three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs challenging their suspension from Assembly.

Raghunandan Rao, Eatala Rajender and T. Raja Singh have filed a petition challenging their suspension from the House for the entire business session.

Their counsel Prakash Reddy argued that their suspension was against rules of the Legislative Assembly and the Constitution. The MLAs alleged that they were suspended in a pre-planned manner.

The legislators sought direction declaring the action of the Legislature Secretary in suspending them as illegal and in violation of the Rules of Procedure and conduct of business in the Assembly, as well as Articles 14, 21, and 194 of the Constitution.

Advocate General B.S. Prasad submitted to the court not to intervene in the legislative affairs. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court issued notice to the Legislature Secretary and adjourned the hearing to Thursday.

All three MLAs of the BJP were suspended from the Assembly for the entire session by Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Monday.

Taking strong exception to the commencement of the budget session without the Governor’s address, the BJP legislators tried to disrupt the proceedings.

On a resolution moved by the government, the Speaker announced their suspension for the entire session.

The MLAs filed a writ petition in the high court challenging their suspension and seeking a direction to permit them to attend the session till its completion.

They contended that they were suspended when they were trying to register their protest against the blatant violation of the Constitutional mandate of having the Governor’s address.

The MLAs said they had entered the Assembly Hall wearing black shawls as a mark of protest and were trying to raise the issue of the scrapping of the Governor’s address.

The legislators said the Speaker paid no heed to the requests and asked the Finance Minister to present the Budget.

After some time, MLA Raja Singh started walking towards the Speaker’s direction to catch his attention and kept imploring for an opportunity to speak, the petition said.

The petition said that this was a normal course of events in any session of the Legislature and has happened on innumerable occasions in the past.

The petitioner pointed out that members of another opposition party (Congress) had also asked the Speaker to hear them on the same issue.

The Telangana High Court on Monday stayed a circular issued by state Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar directing public information officers to take prior permission of heads of departments before disclosing information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The court passed interim orders on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the Chief Secretary’s contentious move.

The court asked the respondents to file the counter to the PIL and adjourned the hearing.

The PIL challenged a circular issued by the Chief Secretary directing the Special Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and Secretaries to give instruction to public information officers to furnish information to RTI applicants, only after securing approval from heads of departments.

RTI activist Ganji Srinivas Rao challenged the Chief Secretary’s memo, terming it as unlawful and unconstitutional. He argued that the top bureaucrat’s order was without jurisdiction and contrary to provisions of the RTI.

The petitioner argued that since RTI Act, 2005 is a Central Act enacted by the Parliament, the Chief Secretary has no authority to issue such a memo. He expressed the apprehension that this could dilute the spirit of the RTI Act and could lead to delay in furnishing of information by the public information officers.

He pointed out that under the RTI Act, the Department of Personnel and Training is the nodal agency and works under the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions.

According to the petitioner, only the competent authority has the power under the RTI Act to make rules by notifications in the official gazette in accordance with the Act.

The Telangana High Court on Friday ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of the accused in rape and murder of a six-year-old girl.

It directed the third metropolitan magistrate of Warangal to conduct an inquiry into death of Pallakonda Raju, who was found dead on railway tracks near Ghanpur station in Jangaon district on Thursday, and submit a report to the court in a sealed cover in four weeks.

The court gave the direction after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by State Civil Liberties Committee President G. Laxman, who expressed apprehensions that police killed Raju in its custody and projected it as a suicide.

Advocate General B.S. Prasad, however, submitted that it is a clear case of suicide and there are eight eyewitnesses to the incident. He said the police had recorded statements of the eye witnesses.

He also informed the court that the autopsy of Raju’s body was also videographed. The court directed that the video recording of autopsy be handed over to Warangal district judge.

Raju, 30, was found dead on the railway tracks in Jangaon on Thursday, a week after he sexually assaulted and killed the minor girl at his house in Singareni Colony in Saidabad area of Hyderabad.

The victim’s body was recovered from the house of Raju, who happened to be her neighbor, on the night of September 9.

The incident had triggered massive public outrage with some people and politicians, including a state minister, calling for killing the culprit in an “encounter”.

A massive manhunt was launched for Raju across the state. The police had also announced Rs 10 lakh reward for any information leading to his arrest.

The Telangana High Court on Monday refused to modify its order banning immersion of Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) in Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad.

The court dismissed the revision petition filed by the state government to allow immersion of PoP idols in the lake.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice T. Vinod Kumar made it clear that it cannot permit water pollution by allowing immersion of PoP idols.

“You created a situation of impossibility, now solve it. We cannot grant permission to people to pollute Hussain Sagar,” the bench said.

“We respect religious sentiments, but there is no scripture that says that we should only pray to Lord Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris,” remarked the bench.

It told the state government that if it doesn’t like its order, it can challenge the same before a higher court.

The bench also asked the authorities whether they implement laws or violate them.

The review petition was filed by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner Lokesh Kumar to allow the immersion of PoP idols in Hussain Sagar.

The municipal commissioner had also requested the high court to modify its order disallowing immersion of idols from the Tank Bund road.

The petitioner had mentioned that if immersion is not allowed from Tank Bund, it may take up to six days for the immersion of thousands of idols brought to the lake.

“The government has spent a large amount of taxpayers’ money to beautify Tank Bund. Will the immersion of Ganesha idols not cause damage to Tank Bund? Has the government not thought this through,” asked the bench.

Lokesh Kumar also wanted exemption from creating a rubber dam to confine immersion of idols in Hussain Sagar to a limited area. He assured the court that all the debris from the lake will be cleared within 24 hours after the immersion procession is completed.

The court expressed its surprise over the review petition and wanted to know why the government did not convey to it the difficulties in immersion of idols.

The high court, in its order dated September 9, had banned the immersion of PoP idols in Hussain Sagar.

The government on Sunday made an attempt to move a house motion but the court refused to entertain it and asked it to make the attempt on Monday instead. The court took up the hearing in the post-lunch session.

Animal Husbandry and Cinematography Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav had said on Sunday that by the time the high court delivers its decision on immersion of PoP idols, 35,000 Ganesh idols had already been installed at various locations in Hyderabad and it is not possible for the government to make alternative arrangements by constructing special ponds at such short time.

He said lakhs of people are likely to participate in the immersion procession across the city and all arrangements have been made for peaceful and safe immersion.

The government took the decision to move the review petition after an appeal by the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi (BGUS).

The Samithi, which organises a mammoth immersion procession every year, had urged the government to file a review petition to ensure that ‘Hindu sentiments’ are protected and the festival is carried out in keeping with the traditions in place.

The BGUS had called the court order a violation of right to freedom of religion.

The court had pronounced its orders on a contempt petition filed by advocate Mamidi Venu Madhav for not implementing the court’s order in the writ petition filed by him seeking a direction to restrain people from immersing idols made of Plaster of Paris in Hussain Sagar lake.

The 10-day long Ganesh festival began on Friday. The festivities will conclude on September 19 with immersion.

Every year, thousands of idols are immersed in Hussain Sagar. Huge idols are brought to the lake in a mammoth processions which start from Balapur on the city’s outskirts.

NGOs, environmental activists and eminent citizens have been voicing concern over the pollution in the lake and demanding curbs on immersion.

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Union Government, State Government, Waqf Board and the Commissioner Endowments on a petition seeking re-building of the religious places, situated within the Telangana State Secretariat building, that were allegedly torn down during the demolition of the building.

Hearing a petition by High Court advocate Khaja Aijazuddin, the court on Wednesday asked the Assistant Solicitor General of India and Advocate General of Telangana to file their counter-affidavits in the matter by October 1, 2020. The matter has now been listed for hearing on October 8, 2020.

The petitioner alleged that the two mosques and one temple, situated within the Secretariat building were damaged during the demolition process without complying with mandatory norms.

In his plea, the petitioner contended that the temple too was demolished without compliance of the Endowments Act and the same was violated resulting in the demolition of the temple. He also argued that it is incumbent upon the government to rebuild the structures at the same place where they previously stood.

The High Court found fault with the state government in not following that mandatory compliance of the provisions of Waqf Act 1995 while demolishing the mosques.

The Telangana High Court on Thursday pulled up the KCR government on why no action was initiated against the contractor over misappropriation of public funds in Niloufer Hospital.

The court directed the state government to thoroughly investigate the food scam and misappropriation of public funds in Niloufer Hospital by the contractor.

The contractor K Suresh Babu was found to be submitting inflated bills in connivance with the hospital management. According to earlier reports, the contractor supplied a high-protein diet as against normal food to patients. A panel was set up to probe into the food and diet supply and payments to the contractors.

The committee found that the scam was wide-spread in government hospitals. The panel found that the contractor submitted invoices showing supply of high-protein diet to 95 percent of children in Niloufer Hospital.

Hearing a petition, the High Court turned its ire against the government questioning why it had failed to take action five months after the committee had submitted a report on the scam.

The court questioned why the government was shielding the contractor. The contractor also supplies food in Gandhi Hospital and Government Chest Hospital. The court directed the government to investigate the matter thoroughly and submit a detailed report by August 16.