Hyderabad: A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court on Friday refused to grant status quo on a dispute between the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) and the Telangana government regarding utilisation of funds of the Council.
The APSCHE had moved a petition before the High Court challenging the decision of the State Bank of Hyderabad to freeze its account at the Shanti Nagar branch in the city alleging that the bank freezed its account at the behest of the Telangana government.
Telangana had moved a plea seeking to restrain the AP government and the APSCHE from operating or withdrawing any amount from bank accounts rega-rding institutions specified in the 10th Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act.
When both the petitions came up for hearing, the bench said as both petiti-ons involved identical issues it will be heard together. Commencing arguments, AP advocate general P. Venugopal contended that the plea of Telangana was not maintainable as freezing of the Council’s account was against Article 131-C of the Constitution and the AP Reorganisation Act.
Telangana advocate general K. Ramakrishna Reddy contended that the APSCHE had no rights to withdraw the amount from the bank. In fact, the Telangana State Council of Higher Education has got the power and was entitled to utilise funds, he said.
He said the AP government operating the funds of the Council was a violation of Section 75 of the AP Reorganisation Act. He urged the court to order status quo to restrain the AP Council from operating the bank accounts. Opining that there is no necessity to pass an interim order at this stage, the bench directed the Andhra Pradesh AG to file a counter affidavit regarding the TS plea. The case was posted to February 25.
