Defamation Plea on CM: Telangana HC Reserves Order

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday reserved orders in the criminal petition filed by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, seeking quashing of proceedings registered against him before the Principal Special Judicial First Class Magistrate for Excise Cases at Hyderabad, which emanate from a private complaint filed by Telangana BJP general secretary Kasam Venkateshwarulu.

It was alleged that Revanth Reddy in an election campaign meeting on May 4, 2024, at Kothagudem had stated that if the BJP came to power at the Centre, it would remove reservations for the SC, ST and BC communities.

Venkateswarlu filed a private complaint alleging that Revanth Reddy had made false and derogatory remarks against the BJP and Union home minister Amit Shah. The case is under trial and Revanth Reddy approached the High Court challenging it.

T. Niranjan Reddy, senior counsel, appearing for Revanth Reddy, vehemently opposed to the contentions put forth by Venkateshwarulu’s counsel and submitted that a private complaint against a political speech was not maintainable. He also raised the contention that Venkateshwarlu had not been given any permission by the BJP leadership to file a private complaint on behalf of the party.

Niranjan Reddy said that Venkateshwarulu had not furnished any document / letter received from the BJP leadership giving its consent to file such a complaint. It was argued that the speech by Revanth Reddy was political in nature, and these could not be construed as defamatory because delivering a political speech was a freedom under Article 19 of the Constitution.

Chief secy gets HC contempt notice

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has summoned Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao and IAS officers N. Sridhar and S. Srinivasa Chary to appear before the court on July 24, in a contempt case filed against them. Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka directed the court registry to issue Form-I notices to them to appear before the court, without fail.

The judge was dealing with a contempt case filed by A.V. Hemalatha and two others, Librarians Grade-3, who were attempting to get their enhanced salaries and arrears from 2011. Despite the orders of the High Court in 2018 and 2024, the authorities did not comply. This led the petitioners to file a contempt petition.

In the contempt case, the court served notices to the officers for their response, but the officials did even file a ‘vakalat’. Taking serious notice of their disobedience towards the court, the judge summoned Sridhar, then-principal secretary, education, (currently with the panchayat raj department), Ramakrishna Rao, then-principal secretary, finance, and Srinivasa Chary, then-director of public libraries.

HC reserves order on Group-1 exam

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court reserved orders in a batch of petitions seeking cancellation or re-evaluation of papers of the Group-I examination and a judicial probe into the alleged discrepancies in the selection process.

Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao of the High Court heard marathon submissions by senior counsels Vidya Sagar, K.S. Murthy and B. Rachna Reddy who argued for the petitioners stating that the TGPSC had conducted the coveted Group-1 examination in a haphazard manner and alleged massive illegalities and violation of rules.

Rachna Reddy contended that the TGPSC had informed the court that it had erred in issuing two hall ticket numbers to the candidates, which created confusion among those who had cleared the Group-1 preliminary. Unqualified evaluators had corrected the answer papers of the candidates, who wrote the exam in Telugu medium because of which there was a huge variation in the pass percentage between the candidates, who appeared in English and Telugu —30 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

Further, the biometrics system was not properly used. Rachna Reddy said that the contention of the TGPSC that all the CCTV cameras installed at the examination centres had a centralised surveillance system was a suspect aspect.

Vidya Sagar, senior counsel, contended that the TGPSC had not conducted the examination in a fair and transparent manner. Any Constitutional body which holds a competitive examination, first and foremost, notifies each and every instruction by way of a Gazette. Unless this process is done, a statutory body cannot hold an examination, he said.

In this case, the TGPSC did not speak about the three rounds of evaluation, moderation and re-evaluation, which spoke about the haphazard manner of conducting the examination.