Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday directed the principal secretary of home department of Telangana, the police commissioner of Rachakonda and Khammam district police superintendent to respond by Monday on a habeas corpus petition seeking to direct the police to produce Mr K. Madhu, regional secretary of CPI (ML) New Democracy, before the court.
A division bench comprising Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy and Justice G. Shyam Prasad was dealing with the petition moved by Ms A. Padma, wife of Mr A. Narayana Swamy alias Madhu. She told the court that around 8 am on Wednesday, while he was on his way from Kothapet to Habsiguda, some plain cloth policemen apprehended him. She submitted that she contacted the authorities through the organisation, but they refused to disclose his custody and location.
Petitioner can approach the Centre, says HC
The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition seeking to declare as illegal a law which recognises Banjaras (Lambadas and Sugalis) as Scheduled Tribes.
The court agreed with the contention of the petitioner that the unrest in the Scheduled Areas of Adilabad district was because other STs were aggrieved that the benefits extended to them were being cornered by Lambadis and Sugalis. It said: “Fact remains that these are not matters of judicial review, since the power of inclusion in, or exclusion from, the list of STs is conferred only on Parliament.”
Mr K. Anji Reddy, counsel for the petitioner, urged the court to permit the petitioner-society to put forth their grievance before the Centre and ask it to take necessary steps to amend Act 108 and to exclude Lambadis and Sugalis from the list of STs.
The bench said: “Suffice it to make it clear that the order now passed by us shall not disable the petitioner from making a representation to the government of India requesting them to consider their grievance.”
