10 new judges of Telangana High Court take oath

Hyderabad: The Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court Justice Satish Chandra administered the oath to all the 10 newly appointed judges on Thursday.

The newly appointed judges are Justice Kasoju Surender, Justice Surepally Nanda, Justice Mummineni Sudheer Kumar, Justice Juvvadi Sridhevi, Justice N Shrawan Kumar Venkat, Justice Gunnu Anupama Chakravarthi, Justice Maturi Girija Priyadarshini, Justice Sambasiva Rao Naidu, Justice Anugu Santosh Reddy and Justice Devaraj Nagarjuna.

Earlier, the registrar general of the HC K Sumana read out the orders of the President of India Ramnath Kovind appointing the 10 new judges to the HC. The advocate general of the State, BS Prasad, the chairman of the Telangana State Bar Council Narasimha Reddy, the president of the High Court advocates association Ponnam Ashok Goud and others were present.

Court seeks report on encroachments at Mental Hospital

The State High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili on Thursday directed the State government to submit a status report on the alleged encroachments at Erragadda Mental Hospital.

The bench directed the Hyderabad District Collector to ensure that all illegal encroachments are removed; no further encroachments should take place.

Prior to passing the order, Radhiv Reddy, Special GP, had submitted to the court that there are six illegal encroachments in the institution. Some civil disputes filed by them are pending. He assured the court that the government will see that no new encroachments will take place.

The court was dealing with suo motu PIL based on a news item published in an English daily dated January 7, 2019. The PIL seeks action on illegal buildings which have come up on the premises near the nursing college and boys' hostel of Osmania General Hospital, Institute of Mental Health at Erragadda on the pretext of religious structures. The Institute of Mental Health staff quarters are also being misused. The compound walls of the hospital have been damaged by raising temporary / permanent structures and being used for commuting. The news item calls for protecting the government land and also land at government hospitals from grabbers. The hearing of the case has been adjourned to last week of April.

Allocation of IAS officers to AP & TS were made by Centre

The division bench comprising Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and S Nanda (new judge), on Thursday heard the batch of writ petitions filed by DOPT, challenging CAT, Hyderabad branch order, allocating 15 All-India Officers (IAS and IPS) originally allocated to AP, now working in Telangana. Indrakaran Reddy, Additional Solicitor-General, representing DOPT, made his submissions in the first petition challenging the allocation of Somesh Kumar, Chief Secretary, Telangana. The ASG informed the court that the allocation of officers to AP and TS were done based on guidelines framed by a five-member committee. The Centre is the authority and the DOPT is the cadre controlling authority, which took an appropriate decision to allot officers to both the States based on the AP Reorganisation Act.

The officers, allocated to AP, approached the CAT and got an order setting aside the entire guidelines and for accommodating them in Telangana. Adhering to the guidelines, the allocation was made which the CAT ought not have set aside them.

Arguments on the petition challenging allocation of Somesh Kumar to Telangana will continue in the next hearing. The bench adjourned the hearing to March 25.