Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday gave the state government six weeks to file a counter to the PILs filed in 2017 and 2018 challenging the government offerings to the deities in the Tirumala, Vijayawada and other temples from the state exchequer.
Writer Kancha Ilaiah and activist Gundamala Ramulu jointly filed a PIL challenging GO 22 and 23 issued by the revenue department in February 2015, which sanctioned funds for Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to offer jewellery to various deities. In another PIL, Prof. P.L. Vishweshwar Rao also challenged such state offerings and made the Chief Minister a respondent in his personal capacity.
They sought directions to the Chief Secretary to recover the amounts spent in pursuance of the impugned GOs. They were referring to the announcements made by the Chief Minister with regard to jewellery offerings in temples, including Bhadrakali, Veerabhadra Swamy, Venkateshwara Swamy in Tirumala, Padmavati Ammavaru at Tiruchanoor and Kanaka Durga temple in Vijayawada.
However, neither the state government nor Chandrashekar Rao filed counters.
On Monday, the two PILs were dealt by a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy.
The court observed that the government cannot make such donations from the public exchequer. The bench urged Advocate General B.S. Prasad to inform his client against making offerings from the exchequer. It adjourned the case to November 29.
