HC Orders Telangana Govt to Submit Report on Police Vacancies and Recruitment Within a Week
The petitioner urged the court to direct the government to immediately fill all sanctioned vacancies
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to submit in a week, a comprehensive counter-affidavit detailing the number of vacancies in the police department and the status of recruitment initiated to fill those posts.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G. M. Mohiuddin was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Help the People Charitable Trust chairman Keethinedi Akhil Sri Guru Teja, alleging that the state had failed to fill a substantial number of posts despite persistent vacancies across various ranks.
Chikkudu Prabhakar, counsel for the petitioner, argued that the inaction was adversely affected public administration, depriving eligible candidates of employment opportunities and was contrary to the principles laid down by the Supreme Court regarding timely public recruitment.
The petitioner urged the court to direct the government to immediately fill all sanctioned vacancies and to evolve a transparent annual recruitment calendar with a time-bound mechanism for issuing notifications and completing the selection process.
Special government counsel Rahul Reddy, representing the state, informed the bench that the government had recently issued a recruitment notification for 7,437 posts of sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors and constables. He submitted that the government was also assessing the remaining vacancies for future recruitment exercises.
When petitioner's counsel sought an interim direction to fill all outstanding vacancies without further delay, the bench declined to grant such relief at this stage. Observing that the government had initiated the recruitment process by issuing a fresh notification, the court said the broader issues raised in the PIL would be considered after examining the state's detailed response.
HC Orders Telangana Govt Not to Withdraw Bullet-Resistant Vehicle of R.S. Praveen Kumar
The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to not withdraw the bullet-resistant vehicle allotted to retired IPS officer and BRS general secretary Dr R.S. Praveen Kumar until a final decision was taken on his representation seeking continuation of the security measure.
Justice T. Madhavi Devi also directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to consider the representation submitted by Praveen Kumar in this regard and security measures to the petitioner. The court held that if the authorities, after examining the representation, still concluded that the bullet-resistant vehicle was no longer required for Dr Kumar, they should issue a show-cause notice to the petitioner and provide him an opportunity to respond before taking any final decision.
Until such an exercise was completed, the bullet-resistant vehicle shall continue to remain with the petitioner, the court said. The writ petition challenged the state government's decision to recall the bullet-resistant vehicle bearing (TS 09 PA 3193), which had been provided to Dr Kumar on account of the threat perception arising from his service in anti-Maoist operations.
High Court Orders Telangana Revenue Dept to Detail SOP for Handling Public Grievances
Concerned over the growing number of writ petitions arising out of routine revenue administration, the Telangana High Court has directed the principal secretary, revenue, to file a detailed affidavit within four weeks explaining the standard operating procedure (SOP) adopted for addressing citizens' grievances relating to revenue services.
Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar observed that a substantial number of petitions coming before the High Court every day raised almost identical grievances, including non-conduct of field line surveys despite applications, delays in mutation of names in revenue records, non-rectification of revenue entries, omission of survey numbers from pattadar pass books, delayed issuance of the pass books following registered sale deeds or other conveyances, and other similar issues.
Observing that these litigations and petitions had become a recurring feature before the court, the court noted that such repetitive litigation pointed to systemic deficiencies in the delivery of basic revenue services.
Justice Shravan Kumar observed that citizens were facing considerable hardship on account of administrative delays. Noted that issuance of pattadar pass books was often taking two to three months, while applications seeking field line ine surveys remained pending for several months after submission. Such delays, the court said, forced citizens to make repeated visits to revenue offices before ultimately approaching the High Court for relief.
The court also took note of submissions that several applicants travel from different parts of the country and even from abroad to complete revenue formalities, expecting the authorities to process their applications within the prescribed time. It was brought to the notice of the court that the some of the applicants made representations to the revenue authorities with the endorsement of the local MLAs to redress the issues.
Questioning whether the department has any uniform standard operating procedure or institutional mechanism to ensure timely disposal of such applications, the judge sought to know whether or not there exists a structured and convenient platform for processing citizens' requests and redressing their grievances within stipulated timelines.