Will hear only review petition, Hyderabad High Court tells Nagam Janardhan Reddy

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday made it clear that it will hear only the review petition moved by BJP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy against the dismissal of his PIL questioning the selection of contractor for the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation scheme and not hear the second PIL moved by him on the same issue.

Earlier, Dr Reddy had moved a PIL alleging that there were several irregularities and illegalities in the process of framing of tender guidelines and the notification issued for the scheme. The PIL said that the expert advice sought by the government from the Engineering Staff College of India and selection of contractor to execute the scheme was also ignored.

A division bench had on March 29, 2016, dismissed the PIL on the ground that it lacked concrete proof to show that the technical advice of the ESCI was wilfully omitted to benefit a particular contractor.

Later he moved a review petition and then another PIL on the issue. When the two petitions came up for hearing on Friday before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice P. Naveen Rao, advocate-general K. Ramakrishna Reddy told the bench they had some preliminary objections on the petitions.

While submitting a memo on the current status of the scheme, he said that the government had already entrusted the contract and the contractor company has commenced work.

At this juncture the bench intervened and told the A-G that it first hear the petitioner and would then consider the objections. P. Veera Reddy, senior counsel appearing for Dr Reddy, submitted that the second PIL was filed after the review petition as they received certain additional information with regard to tender process.