Legal Briefs | Telangana HC sets aside life sentence

HYDERABAD: A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court set aside a life sentence imposed on a person for the murder of his wife and for causing grievous injury to his three-year-old daughter. The panel of Justice K. Surender and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti allowed a criminal appeal filed by Orusu Venkatesh who suffered a sentence of life imprisonment handed over by the VIII Additional Sessions Judge, Mahbubnagar. The case of the prosecution is that in July 2014, the accused killed his wife with a kitchen knife and caused grievous injury to his daughter. Vasanth Kumar, appearing on behalf of the Legal Aid Committee, pointed out to the panel that the veracity of the evidence was suspect and could not form the basis of the conviction. The motive of the murder, according to the prosecution, was that the victim failed to fund the petitioner for consumption of liquor. The panel noticed that the prosecution had failed to establish its case and set aside the sentence.

Intra court appeal refused

A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court refused to entertain an intra court appeal filed by the regional commissioner (central), labour, requiring to pay costs in a writ petition. A single judge had imposed costs of Rs 20,000 on the regional commissioner for failure to file a counter affidavit in a writ petition. The writ petition was on the question as to whether the Airport Authority of India was liable to pay a quantified sum of about Rs 15 lakh to its contract employees. In the writ petition between the contract employees and the AAI, on an earlier occasion, time was sought on behalf of the appellant to file a counter. On failure, the single judge imposed the impugned costs. The panel of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao noticed that the existence of a circular, restraining the appellant as a quasi-judicial authority from filing a counter was not brought to the notice of the court. The panel accordingly permitted the labour commissioner to approach the single judge a fresh and seek review of the same.