High Court to hear Kodanda’s plea today

Hyderabad: The issue of granting of police permission for the TJAC rally and public meeting on unemployment issue, to be held on Wednesday, engaged the High Court at Hyderabad on Monday. Although no direction emerged from the staggered hearing, the High Court adjourned the matter to 10.30 am on Tuesday asking the TJAC whether it could postpone the proposed public meeting and hold it on a Sunday.

Justice A Ramalingeswara Rao advised both the Telangana State government and the TJAC not to stand on prestige and come to an agreement on the issue. Telangana Advocate General K Ramakrishna Reddy informed the Court that there is a specific intelligence report that Left extremist forces and other elements are planning to indulge in violence on the day of the rally and public meeting and there is also a likelihood of Jallikattu protests being repeated here.

Therefore, the police have made it clear that no permission can be granted for these events anywhere in the heart of the city. Accordingly it is suggested to the organisers that the public meeting can be held either at Shamshabad, Miyapur, Nagole, Gandipet, etc. Since it was a working day on Wednesday, common people would be put to great inconvenience if the rally and public meeting are allowed to be held in the city, he said.

When the judge remarked that bigger rallies took place in Hyderabad peacefully, the Advocate General said that there were 31 criminal cases pending against the TJAC. The counsel for the petitioner B Rachna submitted to the Court that the TJAC is willing to drop the proposed rally from Sundarayya Vignana Kendram to Indira Park if any alternative site for holding the public meeting at either the Nizam College grounds or NTR Stadium and LB Stadium grounds is permitted.

She questioned why the government was singling out the TJAC and making Hyderabad city out of bounds for holding the rally while LB Stadium was given for Shankaracharya’ programme. She asserted it is the democratic right of the people to gather peacefully and demonstrate against the government. She said the petitioner had already given an undertaking that the rally and public meeting are held in a peaceful and orderly manner.

The Advocate General countered the argument by saying that TJAC chief had toured entire 31 districts for the last 15 days and held 131 meetings to mobilise the youth for this meeting. Targets to mobilise 1,000 people from each district had been given, he submitted. There are reliable intelligence inputs that anti-social elements may infiltrate into the meeting and spark violence by throwing stones, etc.