HC Not Inclined to Entertain the Petition Seeking FIR Against CM Revanth

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court was not inclined to entertain a petition that sought registration of an FIR against Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy in relation to his re-tweeting of a notice on the closure of Osmania University’s hostels during the BRS government tenure last year.

Revanth Reddy in his X (Twitter) account on April 30 this year had re-tweeted a notice dated May 12, 2023, which was issued by the university’s chief warden with regard to the closure of hostels from May 14 to June 5 last year, allegedly due to the acute shortage of water and electricity.

This was in response to a tweet of former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao who had alleged on X that the Congress government was closing the hostels early this year due to a shortage of electricity and water supply.

Chatari Dasarath and five other students of the university approached the High Court complaining that Revanth Reddy had re-tweeted a fabricated notice. They said that the chief warden’s notice of 2023 did not mention the shortage of water and electricity.

M. Roopender, counsel for the petitioners, argued that Revanth Reddy had circulated the fabricated notice to spread false information and mislead the public. The police were not registering a case against Revanth Reddy for circulating fabricated documents, they said, whereas the BRS leader Manne Krishank had been arrested on similar charges.

Tera Rajanikanth Reddy, additional advocate-general, appearing for the police submitted to the court that the Chief Minister had re-tweeted the notice that was supplied to him by the university authorities. He said the petitioners had no locus standi to file the petition.

Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy asked the petitioners how they were aggrieved by the re-tweet of Revanth Reddy. The judge observed that an FIR had already been registered in the case in which Krishank was arrested, and opined that the police would find out which one was false. The court said that based on the police findings, an alternative legal remedy could be availed.