HC asks Telangana to file counter on GO 39

Hyderabad: The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad has directed the Telangana State government to file a detailed counter affidavit relating to formation of Rytu Samanvaya Samithis in the State within three weeks. At the same time, it expressed its initial opinion as to how it can interfere in a matter that appeared to be the domain of governance.

The division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice J Uma Devi, gave this direction while hearing two separate Public Interest Litigation petitions filed by two farmers, Chimpula Satyanarayana Reddy of Chevella mandal in Ranga Reddy district and Manohar Reddy of Nizamabad, district challenging the issuing of GO 39 that enables the government to appoint these samithis.

Advancing arguments on behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel Sarasani Satyam Reddy and Rachana Reddy contended that the arrangement of these Samithis would amount to putting in place extra-constitutional authorities bypassing the Panchayat Raj system and the government has no power to do so. They informed the bench that the ministers would be nominating the members and these samithis would be disbursing Rs 4,000 to each farmer per season as part of steps supporting the farmers.

The division bench asked the counsels to show under which law the government is debarred from giving powers to ministers to nominate members of such samithis. In a serious remark, the bench observed that the Court is not running the government and the petitioners are asking the Court to interfere in a matter that it should not be interfering, as it appeared to fall under the domain of governance.

The counsels for the petitioners informed the bench that over Rs 500 crore has been allocated for these samithis, whose members state-wide would constitute over 1.20 lakh in number. The bench sought to know from the Advocate-General D. Prakash Reddy regarding this.

He informed the bench that this amount is meant to provide minimum support price for certain crops as the farmers are facing crisis. He also said that since state-level samithi has not yet been formed, this amount would not be spent till it is formed. The village- and mandal-level samithis would be sending proposals in this regard, which the State samithi will discuss and finalise. The bench directed the A-G to file a detailed counter affidavit within three weeks and adjourned the case.