High Court issues directions to DGP, RR Collector

​Hyderabad: The division bench of Hyderabad High Court comprising Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice U Druga Prasad on Friday heard the petition filed seeking orders against Pragati Nivedana Sabha, scheduled to be held on September 2.

The bench observed that as the venue can be approached through the Outer Ring Road, no inconvenience would be caused to people coming into or going out of Hyderabad. The bench directed the Director General of Police and Ranga Reddy District Collector to take all requisite measures to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the public, more specifically to the essential services.

The petitioner, Poojari Sreedhar, requested the court to restrain the authorities from granting any permission for the Pragathi Nivedana Sabha at Kongara Kalan in Rangareddy district. The petitioner, an advocate by profession, contended in his petition that no government has the right to harm environment and any massive gathering at the venue would unequivocally result in environmental degradation and hence any permission sought for organising the aforementioned Sabha should be outrightly denied. 

The petitioner represented by Advocate Karanam Sravan Kumar submitted to the Division Bench that in the age of social media, 4G and 24X7 live coverage, organising a meeting with such huge crowd was grossly redundant.

The petitioner, in his petition, further averred that such a huge public meeting would have an adverse effect on traffic both within the Hyderabad city and on the national and State Highways. Sreedhar also alleged that no government has authority to squander public money for promoting its political interests. 

The petitioner cited several cases before the division bench to substantiate his standpoint, including the landmark case of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan vs Union of India. The matter has been posted to September 7 for further hearing.