Hyderabad: High Court issues notices to government as Seethakka rues sanction of paltry funds under Constituency Development Fund

Hyderabad : Justice Chillakur Sumalatha of the Telangana High Court on Friday issued notices to the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretaries of Planning, Finance and R & B departments, Mulugu district collector and Minister Satyavathi Rathod, seeking their response within two weeks, to contentions of Mulugu MLA Seethakka, saying the government has not sanctioned her the requisite budget under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for her constituency as she belongs to the Congress Party and has naxal background.

The counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the MLA’s tenure ends by January,2024 and the constituency development funds allotted to MLAs also will get lapsed in view of the ensuing elections. He stated that the government has enhanced the CDF to each constituency to Rs.5 crore, but sanctioned paltry budget to the Mulugu constituency. The Mulugu and Mahbubabad districts comprise of seven mandals--Eturunagaram, Govindaraopet, Kannaigudem, Mangapet, Mulugu,Tadvai and Venkatapur. Due to non-approval of the budget for the districts, people have been deprived of development works.

The counsel sought suspension of GO12 (Planning (VII) department) dated July 2, 2021, and GO 14 dated July 3, 2021, through which the government authorised the concerned minister to approve the budget proposals pertaining to the constituency under CDF.

Harender Prasad, special government pleader, sought two weeks’ time to file counter. Justice Sumalatha issued notices and adjourned the plea to October 9 for further hearing. The petitioner’s counsel informed the court that a similar writ petition is pending before the HC filed by MLA Raghunandan Rao (BJP) on the same ground. Though the collector has approved the developmental works sent by the petitioner, Minister Satyavathi Rathod is intentionally not approving any development works for the constituency.

Police told to permit Milad-Un-Nabi procession on Oct 1

The HC single bench of Justice C V Bhaskar Reddy on Friday directed the DCP South Zone, to permit the general secretary, Seerat-Un-Nabi Academy, Qazipura, to take out a procession on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi, birthday celebrations of Prophet Mohammed.

The petitioner organisation represented to the DCP on September 21 seeking permission to hold the procession, with loudspeaker, from Qazipura to Makkah Masjid. As no action was taken on the representation, the petitioner moved a lunch motion writ petition on Friday, seeking a direction to hold the procession.

The organisation planned to celebrate the birthday by taking out a procession on September 28, the birthday of Prophet, but it changed the date to October 1 from 12.30 to 5 pm due to Ganesh procession on the same date.

The judge, after hearing the counsel and the GP for Home, directed the DCP to permit the organisation to hold the procession with loudspeaker, imposing general conditions.

Deposit Rs 17.5 cr in trial court, HC directs HCA

The Telangana High Court division bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice NV Shravan Kumar directed the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) to deposit Rs.17.5 crore in the trial court within six weeks.

The court clarified that all assets, including Uppal stadium, and HCA bank accounts should be released from attachment. The HCA has been instructed not to grant benefits to third parties on immovable and movable properties.

The HCA had earlier sought quashing of the trial court’s order freezing accounts and assets of the cricket body, including Uppal stadium over non-payments of dues. Justice L. Nageshwar Rao approached the HC challenging the Ranga Reddy district court’s attachment of all assets, including the stadium and HCA bank accounts. He requested to cancel those attachments which were made without hearing their arguments.

In 2004 Visakha Industries (VI) sponsored the construction of the Uppal Stadium by taking a loan from the bank. The HCA, however, cancelled its sponsorship agreement forcing the firm to approach court. In 2016, the court directed HCA to pay Rs 25 crore as compensation to VI with 18 percent interest for cancelling the agreement. A commercial executive petition was filed by VI in the RR district court. The court attached HCA properties and bank accounts in October 2022 for non-payment of dues to VI. For this, the HCA had appealed to the HC to unfreeze the bank accounts. Senior advocate Raja Sreepathi argued on behalf of HCA that the arbitral award was arbitrary. He said this was challenged before the commercial court and at the same time VI filed an execution petition elsewhere. This resulted in the order of attachment. On behalf of VI senior advocate Sunil said the case did not happen suddenly. While the arbitration resolution was passed in 2016, the dispute has been going on for seven years.