HC Puts on Hold Medigadda Probe PIL for Scrutiny

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court has put on hold for scrutiny, a PIL which sought a direction to transfer the criminal case filed on submergence of pillars of the Meddigadda barrage to the CBI or the SFIO. The court sought to first know the present condition of the complaint made by the petitioner.

It did not allot a number to the PIL, filed by Congress leader G. Niranjan on December 8. The criminal case into the incident was registered at Mahadevapur police station of Bhupalpally district on October 22.

The division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti on Tuesday directed Tera Rajnikanth Reddy, additional advocate-general, to seek instructions from the government within two weeks on whether any action was taken on the complaint.

Niranjan made a representation to the President, the Centre, the Election Commission of India, the Governor and the Union of India, seeking a probe. The ECI stated in an email reply that the complaint was forwarded to the Chief Secretary in a letter dated November 7. Following this, he filed a PIL in the High Court to direct the state government to order a CBI/ SFIO probe.

On Tuesday, Chief Justice Aradhe posted a volley of questions to counsel for Niranjan, as to under which provision of law the petitioner had made a complaint to the ECI and others, when the issue was regarding the safety of a dam. “... The duty of the ECI is to conduct a free and fair elections... it has nothing to do with the safety of the dam,” the CJ observed.

The court also questioned how the President of India could act upon it and expressing doubts about the genuineness of the intent behind the PIL.