Hyderabad: Justice P Naveen Rao of the Telangana High Court directed the English and Foreign Language University (EFLU) to permit a visually impaired candidate to be interviewed for the post of Assistant Professor in the English department. Dr Yaramchu Sumithra challenged the procedure adopted by EFLU while shortlisting candidates for the said post. According to the petitioner, she was excluded by adopting a scheme not suitable for a candidate facing a disability and avers that she was illegally excluded from consideration. The court directed the university to permit her to be interviewed for the post reserved for a visually impaired candidate and not declare the result. The judge posted the matter on February 15.
GHMC Mayor elections
While hearing another petition filed by former MLA Eravatri Anil Kumar challenging Section 90(1) of the GHMC Act 1955, the court granted time to the government to file its counter within four weeks. Section 90(1) of the GHMC Act empowers ex-officio members to cast their votes in the election of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor. The petitioner challenged the constitutional validity of the said provision. The petitioner’s counsel argued that the provision permitted importing 55 ex-officio members as voters. This would defeat the will of the people. It would completely alter the democratic process of elections. The panel posted the matter to February 23.
Relief for Coastal Projects
A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court, comprising of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, on Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to proceed with the investigation against Coastal Projects Limited but not to take any steps pending the decision of the matter before the NCLT. In a case against the Reserve Bank of India and 16 other banks by Sabbineni Surendra, the court ordered that no action can be taken against the petitioner by the CBI or ED till further directions. Coastal Projects is under liquidation process and has also been made a party to this case alleging that the company’s account can be deemed a fraud under the Fraud Classification and Reporting by Commercial Banks & Select Financial Institutions Directions, 2016. The matter was adjourned to April.
Verdict reserved in AgriGold case
Justice Sreedevi extended her earlier order which directed that no coercive steps should be taken against the functionaries of AgriGold. The petitioners sought anticipatory bails consequent to a notice issued by the ED calling upon the former officials to give evidence. They cited the instance of how the chairman who responded to the notice was arrested though he had earlier spent over two years in jail. It was also argued that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act would not apply to them as the alleged dates of offence were not under the PML Act. The ED opposed grant of anticipatory bail. The judge reserved the verdict.
Enemy property
Justice T Amarnath Goud came down heavily on the Ministry of Home Affairs for its failure to file instructions and counter in spite of court granting sufficient time to do so. The court was dealing with a writ petition filed by Vishnu Das Banketlal Tapadia, challenging the action of the Telangana government in not registering the lease deed on the grounds that the Hyderabad Collector had issued a letter declaring the property of the petitioner as Enemy Property. The petitioner’s counsel maintained that under the Enemy Property Act, it was only the Central government which had the power to declare the property as enemy property and the Collector was not the competent authority and that before the said proceedings were issued, no opportunity was given to his clients. The court adjourned the case to February 4 to enable the Union of India to file its counters.
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