Hyderabad High Court stays hiring by power utilities in Telangana

Hyderabad: A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt on Tuesday stayed the recruitment of assistant executive engineers in the four power corporations of Telangana state till January 20.

The bench was dealing with a petition by one Challa Narasimha Reddy and others, challenging amendments to rules made by the TSGenco, TSTransco, Southern and Northern discoms which enable only citizens of TS get employment.

K. Lakshmi Narasimha, counsel for the petitioners, said that the power utilities amended their recruitment rules in August 2015, according to which only a person who was born in the two zones of the state or had studied for more than six years in one of these zones was called a local candidate for that zone. The ratio was set at 70 per cent for locals and 30 per cent for non-locals.

He said as per Article 16 (2) of the Constitution, the power of reserving posts and determining the local status of a citizen vests with Parliament and not a company registered under the Companies Act.

Referring to the contention of petitioner’s counsel that the Presidential Order was not applicable to the power corporations, the bench asked TS AAG J. Ramachandra Rao whether the amendments reserved all posts in favour of persons of TS.

Replying in the positive, the AAG contended that such reservations were made as per Presidential Order.
When the bench enquired about the status of selection process, senior counsel G. Vidyasagar, appearing for power corporations, replied that the written examinations had been completed and results awaited.

Adjourning the hearing to January 20, the bench ruled that selections should not be finalised till then.

HC seeks Telangana stand on varsity staff pay
The Hyderabad High Court has sought the TS government’s stand on paying of salaries to the staff of Ambedkar Open University working in study centres located in AP, despite sanctioning of funds by the AP government.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with a taken up case based on news reports that 92 regional centres of the varsity located  in AP, catering to three lakh students, have been closed due to reluctance of the TS government to extend services to them and petitions by the AP government seeking extension of services of Potti Sriramulu  Telugu University to AP students and also a plea by professor Chenna Reddy of Telugu varsity challenging his allocation to AP.

The bench made it clear that till final adjudication of the matters pending before it, the staff working in AP Centres should be treated as staff of the Open University.

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