TS High Court directs Senior Counsel to inspect hostels

Hyderabad: The Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on Thursday has directed L Ravi Chander, Senior Counsel, to visit the two hostels meant for visually-impaired located in Old City (Boys) and Malakpet (Girls) and file a detailed and exhaustive report by Tuesday.

The Chief Justice Bench on Thursday heard the suo moto PIL of a news item published in an English daily which highlighted the pathetic and deplorable conditions in which the 60-odd visually-impaired children were residing in both the hostels. The report also mentioned that these children have no access to minimum basic facilities like cleanliness and over 30 of them are packed in a single room that can accommodate only five children.

The Chief Justice said that these children have no access to quality food, education or cleanliness. The toilet is located at about 300 meters away from the hostel and it's been three years now that the hostel building, in which the students were residing, was demolished and there was no utterance from the State government with regard to construction of a new hostel.

When Special Government Pleader Sanjeev Kumar informed the court that the visually-impaired children were fed nutritious food, the Chief Justice, not convinced by the submission of special GP said, "Please don't make cosmetic changes.. the students are forced to eat, study and sleep in the classroom itself." The CJ directed the Senior Counsel Ravi Chander to immediately inspect both the hostels and file a detailed and exhaustive report by next Tuesday.

Court issues notices to CS, Excise official

Hyderabad: The Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili issued notices on Thursday to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and Sarfaraz Ahmed, Director, State Prohibition and Excise Department and asked them to respond to the notices within 10 days.

The Enforcement Directorate had filed a contempt case against the Chief Secretary and the Director, Prohibition and Excise for not furnishing information pertaining to the investigation into the drugs case wherein Tollywood actors and others were involved. Earlier on February 19, the court directed the State government to furnish the FIR copy, charge sheet etc., pertaining to the case and the call data records of all persons who were involved in the case within a month from February 19.

MP Revanth Reddy, filed the PIL in 2017 when he was TDP MLA seeking a CBI probe into the Investigation into the drugs case wherein Tollywood actors and other high profile persons were involved.

The Chief Justice court while entrusting the investigation of the drugs case to the Enforcement Directorate had given liberty to the ED to approach the High Court in the event of non-furnishing of information by the State government. Despite the orders of the Chief Justice Bench, information sought by the ED was not furnished by the State government. Hence, the ED filed the contempt case. For further hearing, the matter has been adjourned to April 25.