A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court led by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice R. Raghunandan Rao directed the government to file a counter to the PIL filed by retired railway employee Chinta Venkateswarlu against the appointment of Samineni Udayabhanu (Jaggaiahpet MLA), P. Sarath Chandra Reddy and Kethan Desai as members of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board, in three weeks.
Petitioner’s counsel J. Shravan Kumar argued that the three newly inducted members of the TTD Trust Board had criminal record and their appointment was in violation of Sections 18 and 19 of the AP Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions And Endowments Act, 1987 and No 8 of the AP Charitable And Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Appointment Of Trustees Rules, 1987. The prayer was for setting aside G.O. MS No 406 dated August 25, 2023 through which the impugned appointments were made.
PIL against house arrests
Meanwhile, Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Raghunandan Rao directed that notices be served on the Chief Secretary, Director-General of Police and Principal Secretary (Home) for filing a counter in two weeks explaining their stand on the house arrests made throughout the State in the early hours of September 9.
They were hearing a PIL filed by Vinukonda former MLA G.V. Anjaneyulu against the arrests, detentions and house arrests of leaders of Telugu Desam Party, Jana Sena Party, CPI(M )etc. (in the aftermath of the arrest of N. Chandrababu Naidu). His contention was that those arrests, detentions and house arrests were illegal and in violation of Article 19 & 21 of the Constitution, guidelines of the Supreme Court and Section 41 & 50 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Y. Balaji prayed for a direction to the police not to arrest, detain and house arrest the leaders of political parties, so that they could exercise their right to freedom of speech, conduct rallies, hold press meets etc. in a peaceful manner. He alleged that while suppressing the democratic protests of the opposition parties, the police were allowing the YSR Congress Party to stage protest demonstrations and take out rallies.
CARD-2.0
The High Court ordered issue of notices to Chief Secretary and Inspector-General of Registration and Stamps for filing a counter regarding a PIL that challenged CARD-2.0 (Computer-aided Administration of Registration Department) project, in three weeks. The petitioners’ apprehension was that a new online system of property registrations and mutations proposed by the Department of Registration and Stamps was detrimental to the livelihood of document writers.
