Hyderabad: A division Bench comprising of acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday sought to know the health condition of 19-years-old Pratyusha, who had been brutally tortured by her stepmother and father.
The Bench has taken cognisance of the incident based on a letter by Justice Challa Kodanda Ram.
The judge had written to the Chief Justice, requesting the latter to intervene in the matter as the incident had violated the girl’s rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Justice Kodanda Ram informed the Chief Justice that the health of the girl appeared to be very fragile and the intervention of the court was necessary to protect her right to life and dignity.
While taking up the case, the Bench asked the counsel representing the Telangana government about the whereabouts of the girl and also about her health.
Observing that such incidents showed that women were being taken lightly and also pointed towards where our society was heading, the Bench asked the counsel to submit a report by Wednesday explaining the whereabouts of the girl, who was treating her, her health condition, her mental and physical status and where her parents were.
The Bench also sought to know the reason for not arresting her father till date and what action had been taken against the guilty.
In another case, the same Bench ordered the state governments of AP and Telangana to file affidavits explaining whether they had any protective or rescue homes in the state to give shelter to women who were victims of human trafficking.
The Bench was dealing with a plea by Prajwala, an NGO represented by Sunita Krishnan, seeking directions to the AP and Telangana governments to take steps to run protective homes for victims of sex trafficking for the purposes of rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation. The Bench posted the case to July 20.
No intervention in fitment case
A division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL case challenging the state government’s decision to pay 43 per cent fitment benefit to its employees.
The Bench was dealing with a PIL by Forum for Better Living, a voluntary organization represented by Ms D. Padmaja of Warangal district, contending that the government had acted in a hasty manner in declaring the fitment contrary to the recommendation made by the Pay Revision Commission.
The Bench made it clear that extending the benefit to employees and ensuring their welfare was purely a policy matter of the government and the courts could not intervene in such policy decision.
While dismissing the PIL, the Bench said that the allocation of budget towards payment of salaries was a prerogative of the government and it would take care in offering fitment benefit to its employees and the employees in turn were also paying tax to the government.
