Telangana HC Gives Relief to Revanth in Election Petition Case

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday quashed criminal proceedings against Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy in relation to a case registered on violation of election and Covid rules during the Huzurabad byelection in 2021.

The Kamalapur police had registered the FIR against Revanth Reddy, Dr Balmoor Venkat and five others, alleging that they violated election and Covid rules by conducting a meeting with 2,500 people when the police had restricted the size to 1,000 people. Criminal proceedings are going before the special court to try criminal cases against public representatives.

In the High Court, Revanth Reddy’s counsel argued that the petitioner was the president of the state Congress at that time and was canvassing for the party candidate. He did not know for the conditions imposed by the police and the permission was taken by local party personnel.

In another criminal case against Revanth Reddy regarding violation of election rules in Huzurnagar byelection in 2019, the High Court exempted his appearance before the trial court till the police submitted their contentions.

The allegation against Revanth Reddy and other Congress leaders were that they had conducted the election meeting in Ponugode mandal of Suryapet district without obtaining permission from the returning officer. Justice K. Lakshman directed the police to file their counter and dispensed with the appearance of Revanth Reddy before the trial court. The HC directed Revanth Reddy to appear before the trial court whenever his presence was necessary.

RBI gets HC notice on bias in SBI staff

Hyderabad: A division bench of the Telangana High Court on Monday issued notice to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seeking its response with regard to the agitation by employees of merged associate banks into the State Bank of India about their service conditions.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin was dealing with an appeal filed by P.T.M. Gopala Krishna, ex-manager and leader of the All India State Bank Officers Federation. Their case was that the employees of the associate banks — State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore, which merged into SBI from April 1, 2017 —were being discriminated against.

According to the petitioners, the notification mentioned that employees of the transferor banks (associate banks) shall become an officer of, as the case may be, of the transferee bank (SBI) and hold office on terms and conditions as may be approved by the Central Board of the transferee bank. However, the Central Board did not approve any terms and conditions.

But, the Chief General Manager (HR), SBI, Corporate Centre, Mumbai, issued option letters to employees and officers of the associate banks, asking them to accept the terms and conditions ‘A’ or ‘B’ or discontinue service by choosing ‘C’.

They said the ‘option letter’ was unknown to service jurisprudence. A permanent employee or officer could not be forced to resign if he or she did not like the new terms and conditions. The so-called letter did not refer to terms and conditions approved by the Central Board of the transferee bank. Therefore, the Chief General Manager had no authority to unilaterally issue such an offer letter.

Senior counsel Prabhakar Sripada argued that the Clause 3(b) of the offer letters showed that the employees of associate banks had been subjected to hostile discrimination. It said that probationary officers and trainee officers in SBI will get four additional increments, whereas those of the associate banks would not get those additional increments. Earlier, a single judge was not inclined to intervene in the issue. Hence, the employees filed an appeal.