JNTUH told to inspect BE, pharmacy colleges

Hyderabad: Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH) to conduct physical inspection of all the engineering and pharmacy colleges offering post-graduate courses to know about the facilities being provided by them to the students.

The judge granted an interim direction while dealing with a batch of petitions filed with regard to the admissions into various private engineering and pharmacy colleges conducting PG courses.

K. Ramakrishna Reddy, advocate general of Telangana state and representing the JNTU, submitted that as per directions issued by a HC division bench earlier, the university has issued deficiency notices to 127 engineering and 40 pharmacy colleges seeking particulars about the facilities.

He also submitted that a minimum one month period would be required to evaluate the information and to submit a report to the court on the deficiencies pointed out by the varsity, after physical inspection of these colleges.

The judge directed the university to submit a report by November 17, 2014.

Nava Bharat plea dismissed

Justice P. Naveen Rao of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday dismissed the petition by the Nava Bharat Projects Limited challenging the provisional attachment order of the Enforcement Directorate against it in the coal scam case.

The ED has provisionally attached the properties worth Rs 1,86.11 crore as “proceeds of crime” in connection with a coal block allocation scam case registered by the CBI against Nava Bharat Projects.

The company contended that the ED has failed to appreciate the fact that the amount of Rs 169 crore was received by the petitioner company towards sale consideration for its equity shares and was disclosed to the stock exchange, and have paid an amount of Rs 35 crore towards income tax.

The ED refuted the contentions of the company arguing that the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act by it in coal block cases is being monitored by the Supreme Court and periodical status reports are being filed before it on the progress of investigation.

The ED submitted that, in the present case, the ED had only passed the provisional attachment order and now the matter is pending before the Adjudicating Authority, New Delhi, and an investigation is still on and so far no complaint has been filed against the petitioner company, in the designated Special Court for coal block allocation matters.

The ED contended that the petitioners have a statutory remedy under Section 8 of the PMLA Act and instead of exhausting the statutory remedy, the petitioners filed the petition invoking Article 226 of Constitution.

While considering the contentions of the ED, the judge dismissed the plea.