Potency test of IPS trainee officer: HC sets aside lower court order

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday set aside an order of a lower court permitting the investigating officer to subject trainee IPS officer M Uday Krishna Reddy to a potency test in connection with a criminal case registered against him.

Justice Jaggannagari Srinivas Rao passed the order while allowing the criminal petition filed by Reddy challenging the order dated August 17 of the III Additional Junior Civil Judge-cum-XXV Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Ranga Reddy district, Rajendranagar. The lower court had allowed the IO to conduct a potency examination on Reddy under Section 52 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). He challenged the order before the HC and sought rejection of the IO’s request.

The HC, after considering the principles laid down by the Madras and Karnataka High Courts in similar cases, found that the prosecution’s application in Reddy’s case was not in line with those principles. Accordingly, Justice Rao set aside the lower court’s order permitting the potency examination. He, however, made it clear that the order would not prevent the prosecution from approaching the court with an appropriate application in accordance with law, if the need arises. Reddy who is under suspension and in judicial custody in connection with the case, had also filed a separate criminal petition seeking quashing of FIR registered against him. That petition is still pending. The order was passed in criminal petition 13846 of 2026, in which Reddy challenged the lower court’s order in crl MP 461 arising out of crime no. 824.

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