Telangana High Court reprimands State for delay in post-curfew decision

Hyderabad: The High Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the State government for its delay in taking a decision with regard to containing Covid surge in the State.

The High Court bench headed by Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy was dealing with two Public Interest litigations seeking a series of directions to the Telangana State government to take steps to curtail and curb the further spread of novel Coronavirus in State.

Not agreeing with the contentions of Advocate General Banda Shivananda Prasad that the Telangana government was going to take all steps to contain the spread of Covid-19 and would monitor the issue every day, the CJ reprimanded the State government stating, "This court does not believe in interfering in the role of the Executive. If the Executive does not want to take a decision, then this court will. We are also aware that you propose to challenge our order and you keep deciding internally."

When the court was told that the State had extended the night curfew for a period of 8 days starting from May 1, a visibly disgruntled CJ pulled up government for taking the decision at the 11th hour.

"The Telangana government has taken such a long time in arriving at a decision, and if this is repeated again, then the government will be testing waters and will find the water to be too hot," said the CJ sarcastically, posting the matter to May 5.