Declining to direct the Registry to allot a number to the PIL petition filed by former Minister Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah for expeditious adjudication of cases against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Telangana High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing to August 23.
The petition came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar. The petitioner’s counsel informed the bench that he had presented clarifications sought by the Registry - yet the PIL plea was not numbered.
CJ Alok Aradhe sought to know from the counsel why he wanted the HC to pass an order on the matter when Special Courts were in the process of hearing the criminal cases registered against the Chief Minister. The Chief Justice asked the counsel to present material to show that trial of the cases were getting delayed.
The counsel told the bench that Supreme Court had earlier ruled that High Courts can suo moto take up such matters. The Chief Justice asked the counsel to present a copy of the apex court. The bench posted the matter to August 23 stating that it would decide whether the plea involved any public interest.
Justice P. Madhavi Devi of Telangana HC on Thursday reserved orders in a batch of petitions seeking a direction for cancellation of the Group-I preliminary exam conducted by Telangana State Public Service Commission. The exam was first conducted in November last year.
The TSPSC cancelled the exam following allegations of leakage of question papers and registration of criminal cases. The Group-I preliminary exam was re-conducted on June 11 this year.
However, some candidates moved the HC and filed writ petitions seeking instructions to the TSPSC to cancel the exam on different grounds. The petitioners contended that authorities failed to take all security precautions like verifying bio-metrics of the aspirants. They told the court that everything was left to the invigilators giving scope for possible fraud by some persons.
Advocate General B.S. Prasad, appearing for the State, told the court that the exam was conducted second time not leaving anything to chance. Lakhs of candidates were awaiting results of the exam and gearing up for the main examination.
