Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the State Principal Finance Secretary to appear before it on June 3 if the government fails to accord sanction of finance assistance assured to an injured National Security Guard commando K. Sriramulu.
The High Court, which had taken up a news report on the plight of the commando as PIL petition, took a serious note of government failing to fulfil the promise made to the commando. A division bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy deplored the inaction of the State government over the assurance given to the commando who served the nation.
The fate of the former solider was hanging in balance from October 2018 to April 2021 due to the inaction of the government, the bench observed. The former NSG commando was an expert in defusing bombs and suffered serious injuries during the terror attack on Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab.
The government counsel told the court that government already sanctioned 300 square yards of plot to the soldier and the file relating to financial assistance to build the house was pending with the Finance Department. Terming the contentions as most unacceptable, the Chief Justice directed the government to immediately sanction the assistance to the former NSG guard.
In a separate matter, the division bench headed by the Chief Justice took serious objection to the State government’s proposal of paying ₹5,000 honorarium to a retired judge heading the Appellate Authority for Telangana State Pollution Control Board. “Do you (State government) think that retired judges would work for such paltry sums…?” the Chief Justice asked.
“It is absolutely an insult to us that the retired judge would be paid ₹5,000 per month honorarium,” the Chief Justice remarked. The proposal was sent by the Secretary, Environment and Forest, requesting the Chief Justice to nominate the name of a retired judge to head the Appellate Authority of the TSPCB.
The HC wanted the State government to constitute the authority while hearing a batch of writ petitions and PIL petitions pertaining to environmental pollution cases. In this backdrop, the government mooted the proposal of paying ₹5,000 honorarium to the retired judge heading the authority.
Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy also took a serious objection to the proposal describing it as “demeaning act”.