Telangana HC Backs Invoking PD Act Against Spurious Seed Offenders

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court backed the state police invoking the Telangana Prevention of Dangerous Activities Offenders Act against those in the sale of spurious seeds to farmers.

The court said that sale of spurious seeds as offences which disturb the public order. The impact of the offence would create panic in the minds of the poor and small farmers, disrupt their livelihood and their financial well-being.

This would be acting in a manner prejudicial to the maintenance of ‘public order’ apart from disturbing the peace, tranquility and social harmony in society. Hence, there is no error in detaining such offenders under the PD Act , a division bench comprising Justice K. Lakshman and K. Sujana said.

The bench upheld the decision of the police in invoking the PD Act against Gaddam Ravindra Babu, who faces two other cases, for selling spurious HT cotton seeds. His kin filed the petition challenging the detention and argued that the crimes registered against the detenue cannot disturb public order and that the PD Act should be invoked in the rarest of rare cases.