HC grants two months to govt. to provide jobs to displaced ST families

Telangana High Court on Wednesday granted two months to the State government to complete the process of recruitment to nearly 40 posts of teachers belonging to families of Scheduled Tribes whose houses were acquired by Singareni Collieries Company Limited for open cast project in Yellendu of Bhadradri Kothagudem district. A bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy passed the interim direction after the government agreed to complete the recruitment when a Contempt of Court petition filed by members of displaced families came up for hearing. Members of these families moved the HC by filing writ petitions seeking employment for one member of each family as per GO MS no. 34 of 2010.

A single judge of the HC passed order directing the company to provide employment as per the said GO in consonance with the Tribal Empowerment Policy of the government. Challenging the single judge order, the company filed an appeal before a division bench which upheld the order.

As the division bench order was not enforced, members of the displaced families moved filed contempt proceedings against the company. When the bench headed by CJ Hima Kohli heard the contempt plea, Special Government Pleader Sanjeev Kumar told the court that the government had already decided to provide jobs to a single member of all displaced families in compliance with the GO. He conceded that there were some anomalies in enforcement of Tribal Enforcement policy which landed the government in the present situation and the matters were being rectified.

The bench agreed to grant the two months of time sought by the SGP and instructed the government to comply with the directions of the court.