Hyderabad: A two-judge PIL panel of the Telangana High Court on Thursday voiced serious concerns about seeming indifference of the State to protect missing children. The panel of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was dealing with a batch of writ pleas filed by Prajwala, its founder Dr Sunita Krishnan and others on the question of implementation of Juvenile Justice Act and Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. Pleas also include a complaint against non-constitution of 33 Child Welfare Committees in the State. Earlier, the panel had called for a report from the State police on the list of missing children, their demographic peculiarities. The panel also wanted to know from the police steps designed for rescue and rehabilitation of children who are victims of human trafficking. Chief Justice Chauhan pointed out that there were 6,500 Pocso cases pending adjudication in the State. The figures were worrisome, he added. The panel pointed to a report submitted by a committee headed by senior counsel L Ravichander and stated that for over five years, the report had been collecting dust. The panel asked the government to at least file an interim report by December 3. It also wanted completion of the ongoing task of constituting Child Welfare Committee by December 1.
Non-compliance by toll plazas
The same panel issued notices to the State Government, National Highways Authority of India, and Hyderabad Growth Corridor Ltd in a PIL complaining that there is large scale non-compliance of conditions by toll plazas on NHs. Dr Jasbeen Jairath, a social activist, and Swapna Sundar, an advocate from Chennai, filed the writ petition pointing out how if provisions of Manual of Specifications and Standards on highways were complied with, the Disha rape case could have been prevented. The intent of placing CCTV cameras is to enable all-time monitoring. Failure to monitor makes the housing of such CCTV cameras useless the petitioner contended. According to the petitioners, the toll plaza managed by Eagle Infra failed to provide safe parking place and accordingly failed to protect Disha. This is also in violation of The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. The panel granted four weeks for the authorities and the management of the toll plazas to submit their response.
Pathway works stalled
The panel also stalled the construction of any pathway or road across the Katta Mallanna Tank bed in Gorrekunta village of Geesukonda mandal, Warangal district. The panel quizzed the counsel for municipality as to how a complete basti came up in the park land and why the civic authorities had not taken any action. The PIL case was filed by Sri Kuchana Venkata Narayana of Hanmakonda challenging the construction of Inner Ring Road through the lake in significant deviation of the sanctioned Warangal Master Plan 1971 without any administrative sanction. Justice Vijayan Reddy suggested if the road is inevitable, it could be a bridge but not a road across the park. The panel made interim order that no such construction shall take place pending the disposal of the present case.
Voter registration for graduates
The panel head in part a matter concerning the procedure adopted by the Election Commission of India in the voter registration for Graduates constituency in Telangana. Petitioner Prabhakar Chikkudu prayed before the court that the deadline of 18th November would be insufficient to ensure wider voter registration due to the lack of wider publicity. The Chief Justice pointed out that the Covid-19 situation and the recent floods in Hyderabad mark an extraordinary situation that requires an extended timeline for voter registration. The standing counsel for the ECI, Avinash Desai, informed the court that even though the deadline was set as November 18, voters have an option to register till December 31, 2020. The court adjourned the matter for a day and sought a clarification from the EC concerning the permissibility of prospective voters to fill Form 18, 19 for registering on the electoral roll in the Graduates constituency between Dec 1 and December 31.
Co-op bank project
The panel also took on file a writ plea challenging the grant of a Rs 25-crore project by the State Cooperative Apex Bank in favour of a private party. The panel was dealing with a plea filed by Kumbam Srinivas Reddy, Director, Nalgonda DCCB, who challenged the action of Telangana State Cooperative Apex panel in awarding the contract related to core banking to Infrasoft Technologies Private Limited, Mumbai, on nomination based without following a free and equitable procedure of floating tenders.
Job on compassionate grounds
Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili directed the Telangana Road Transport Corporation to look into the application of the petitioner within a period of two months for appointment on compassionate grounds. The petitioner, B Pulabal, was the son of a bus conductor for the erstwhile APSRTC who died in service in August 2003. The petitioner said he had submitted his application to the authorities concerned on four separate occasions but in vain. The court with the consent of both the parties disposed of the writ plea with the said direction.
Irregularities in appointment
A two-judge panel, comprising of Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Challa Kodanda Ram, issued notice to the Secretary of the Tribal Welfare Department and the Chief Engineer of the department in a matter complaining of alleged irregularities in the appointment procedure of the Chief Engineer for the department. Petitioner B Vasantha, executive engineer at the department, and claims to be eligible for the post as per seniority. His counsel pointed out that M Shankar, who was appointed in place of the petitioner, was involved in a corruption case. The court issued notices to all the parties involved and posted the matter for November 26.
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