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Telangana scraps Parliament Secretary

Contempt case filed by Congress MP closed
Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Friday submitted before the Hyderabad HC that it has already withdrawn the appointments of Parliamentary Secretaries and had asked the appointees on May 23 not to function. The division bench comprising Acting CJ Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was dealing with a contempt case filed by Congress MP Gutha Sukender Reddy seeking to punish the Chief Secretary and other officials concerned and the appointees for disobeying HC orders.
It may be recalled that the MP had challenged the appointments of MLAs D. Vinay Bhaskar, Jalagam Venkat Rao, V. Srinivas Goud, G. Kishore Kumar, V. Satish Kumar and Kova Laxmi as Parliamentary Secretaries through a GO on Dec. 29, 2014 and for subsequently bringing out the Telangana Parliamentary Secretaries (appointment, salaries, allowances and miscellaneous provisions) Act, 2015 giving legal sanctity to the appointments.
A division bench on May 1, 2015 set aside the appointments after it noticed that the Act gave the power of appointment to the CM while the appointment order was issued in the name of the Governor which is not permissible.
The counsel representing the MP submitted that despite the order the appointees are continuing in the posts. The government counsel placed a memo before the bench and said that the government had withdrawn the appointments and the appointees were asked not to function. The bench later closed the contempt case.
Relief for power sector staff
In a major relief to the employees of power distribution companies the HC on Friday suspended the guidelines issued by the Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd (TSSPDCL) for distribution of employees of the AP Transmission Corporation and the AP Power Generation Corporation (Genco) between AP and Telangana as an interim measure.
The court also directed the TSSPDCL and the TS government to maintain status quo as on June 9, 2015. The status quo will provide relief to 1,000 employees working in Discoms and Genco as the TSSPDCL had passed orders asking them to quit and report to the AP Transco and AP Genco.
Justice R. Kantha Rao issued the interim order while dealing with petitions moved by employees contending that the Telangana government had no power to frame guidelines for the distribution of employees.
The petitioners said that as per Section 82 of the AP Reorganisation Act the TSSPDCL is the competent body to formulate modalities for a year from the appointed day and after that only the President can do so.
They said the TSSPDCL had prepared the guidelines after inserting a nativity clause which violated fundamental rights.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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