HC serves notices to top officials, TTD members

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh High Court heard a petition challenging the appointment of members to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board, particularly 18 individuals having criminal backgrounds and served notices to endowments principal secretary, TTD executive officer and several other trustees.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice AV Sesha Sai, heard a petition filed by BJP leader G. Bhanuprakash Reddy on Wednesday challenging the appointment of 28 members to TTD Board and 52 special invitees by issuing GO Nos 245, 568 and 569.

The petitioner’s counsel N. Aswani Kumar argued that under Section 18 of the AP Endowments Act, persons having criminal cases booked against them cannot be made members of the trust board. He submitted that those having such criminal cases were made as respondents in the case and said that an additional affidavit was filed with details of criminal cases against the 18 members.

The court served notices to the concerned officials and all the respondents and posted the next hearing after three weeks.

Those made respondents include, endowments principal secretary, TTD executive officer and its members Pokala Ashok, Malladi Krishna Rao, K. Vidya Sagar, A.P. Nanda Kumar, Vemireddy Prashanti Reddy, A. Malleeswari, R. Viswanath Reddy, B. Madhusudhan Yadav, K. Sanjeevaiah and several others.