A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court, comprising Justices Ramasubrah Manian and Uma Devi, on Thursday granted interim orders permitting the members of the Telangana Web Offset Printers Association to submit their competitive tenders floated by the A.P. government to grant the contract of printing and publishing government nationalised textbooks for high school and primary school students.
The bench was dealing with case filed by the association. They complained that the Andhra Pradesh government had imposed a condition that only those printers who are registered in A.P. could participate in the tender process.
The successful bidders would get the contract to supply printed books for the academic years 2017-2018 to 2019-2020. They said that the printers registered in Hyderabad were debarred implicitly. The court was told that the city of Hyderabad continues to be capital of A.P. for 10 years as per the Reorganisation Act, and they could not be prevented from submitting the tenders.
The bench asked the A.P. government to respond to this.
The court was told that to facilitate quick distributing, this condition was imposed. The bench granted interim orders directing the AP officers to issue tender schedule and receive tenders submitted by the publishers registered in Hyderabad also if they choose to do so. All further action would be subject to further orders in the case. The government was asked to file counter-affidavit. The case would be listed for February 27.
Relief for MP’s husband
Justice B. Shivashankar Rao of Hyderabad Court granted conditional relief to P. Ramakoteswara Rao, managing director of Visweswara Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (VIPL) and husband of Kothapally Geetha, MP of Araku constituency in A.P., in a cheque bounce case.
The judge was dealing with a case filed by Ramakoteswar Rao challenging the sentence of conviction awarded by the Special Economic Offences Court of Hyderabad in the case. The special court had convicted Mr. Rao in the case initiated by Punjab National Bank against him and his wife. The bank complained that a cheque issued by him for repayment of ₹25 crore bounced.
