A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice N. Jayasurya posted the petitionschallenging G.O.s 568 and 569, through which two special invitees were nominated to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board and 50 special invitees to the TTD respectively, to Februarywhile recording the government’s submission that it planned to make certain amendments to the Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987.
Appearing on behalf of Kakumanu Lalith Kumar, one of the petitioners who challenged the G.O.s, advocate Umesh Chandra P.V.G. argued that the principal Act (A.P. Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowment Act, 1987) neither defined a ‘special invitee’ nor laid down any qualifications and therefore, the government was not empowered to issue the impugned G.O.s in the first place.
Senior advocate S.S. Prasad represented the TTD. He informed the court about the proposed amendments to the said Act and sought time to file a counter.
Arguing on behalf of another petitioner Madineni Uma Maheswara Naidu, advocate Y. Balaji said that even the Central and the State Cabinets are not as large as the TTD and its Trust Board would be if they are allowed to give effect to the above G.Os. Advocate Nagi Reddy presented arguments on behalf of Tirupati MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy who is one of the two persons nominated as special invitees to the TTD Trust Board and whose implead petition had been admitted..
