Justice Lalitha Kanneganti of Telangana High Court had observed that the State police ‘have no respect to the orders passed by the honorable Apex Court and this High Court’.
The judge made this observation while passing an interim direction in a batch of writ petitions filed by Zarda and Pan Masala manufacturers stating that Telangana police were registering cases against them in violation of the stay orders issued by the Supreme Court. Telangana government on this January 7 issued a notification prohibiting manufacture, storage, distribution, transportation and sale of Gutka/Pan Masala containing tobacco and nicotine as ingredients.
A trader moved the Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition challenging the notification. The Apex Court on this March 31 stayed that notification. This trader and some others, through writ petitions in Telangana HC, stated that despite the Supreme Court orders, Telangana police had been registering cases against them.
