Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court asked the government on Monday to explain its stand on Clause 33 of the TS Private Universities (Establishment and Regu-lations) Act, 2018 which provides for only 25 per cent reservation of seats for TS students in private universities.
The order was given by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ragha-vendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther on a public interest litigation, which challenged the clause and stated that the Presiden-tial Order stipulates 85 per cent of seats have to be reserved for the students from the state.
The bench was dealing with a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Osmania University res-earch scholars J. Shankar and Korvi Balakrishna Mudiraj who said that providing only 25 per cent quota was a violation of Article 371-D and Section 95 of the Andhra Pradesh States Re-organisation Act.
The petitioners said that certain safeguards were envisaged for locals in the matter of jobs and admissions in educational institutes through Article 371-D. Parliament had inserted Section 95 in the AP Re-organisation Act and protected the laws governing reservations in educational institutions.
“The legislature of the state of Telangana is incompetent to bring any changes in the Union laws and approving the impugned clause 33 in the TS Private Universities Act is a “colourable legislation” and “fraud on the Constitution”, they told the court.
Considering the contentions raised by the petitioners, the bench issued a notice to state government to respond and adjourned the case to four weeks.
Poll panel seeks HC’s direction
Urged by the Telangana State Election Commis-sion (SEC), the High Court on Monday said that would hear the cases filed against conducting of municipal elections on Tuesday.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther gave the date when senior counsel G. Vidya Sagar, representing the the SEC, said it was ready to hold polls in 69 municipalities and sought directions.
He urged the bench to tag all petitions that challenged the delimitation of wards with a public interest litigation petition filed by Mr K. Anju Kumar Reddy of Adilabad and issue directions.
The tenure of the elected bodies ended last month. When the government and and the SEC moved forward to conduct elections, several citizens approached the High Court challenging the delimitation of wards and the hasty manner in conducting the elections.
In about 57 municipalities, the High Court has granted stay orders against holding elections because due procedure as required under the Telangana Municipalities Act.
The SEC found that there are no complaints from other 69 municipalities but the process had been stopped due to orders passed on the petition of Mr Anju Kumar Reddy.
