Advocate General B.S. Prasad on Wednesday informed the Telangana High Court that the State government has initiated the exercise of finalising appointments for the positions of Information Commissioners, and Lokayukta, Upa-Lokayukta, Chairman and Members of State Human Rights Commission (SHRC).
He sought four weeks’ time to give a detailed reply on the matter when a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the government to finalise appointments came up for hearing before the High Court.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy sought to know from the government as to why there was a delay in the appointments to these posts.
The plea was filed by a social activist K. Venkanna.
ULB polls
The Division Bench posted the hearing of a PIL seeking deferment of polls to municipalities (Urban Local Bodies), to September 26 while directing the petitioners and the State government to file written submissions. The Bench said it would take a call on further hearing of the contentions of the petitioners’ counsels after examining their written submissions.
The period of ULBs expired on July 2 this year. The government issued an ordinance amending the Telangana Municipalities Act and decided to hold elections to municipalities.
Two persons filed PILs seeking postponement of the municipal polls stating that the government had hurriedly completed several mandatory pre-poll processes.
Hearing adjourned
The Division Bench adjourned the hearing of a PIL on the alleged fake encounter of P. Lingaiah after the government counsel informed it that the Supreme Court had issued a stay order on hearing of the petition.
The Civil Liberties Committee-Telangana State had filed the PIL seeking registration of murder case against the police personnel involved in the ‘fake encounter’.
After hearing the petition, the Division Bench had earlier issued direction to get the statements of four eyewitnesses (cited by the petitioner’s lawyer V. Raghunath) recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Challenging the Division Bench’s order, the State government moved the Supreme Court and secured a stay order against it.
When the plea came up for hearing on Wednesday, the Special Government Pleader, Sharath Kumar, informed the Bench that the apex court had issued a stay order on the matter.
