Hyderabad: A two-judge bench of the Telangana High Court on Friday took on file a case of a prisoner seeking premature release. K. Yadigiri, undergoing life imprisonment, had earlier addressed a letter to the Supreme Court, which transferred the file to the High Court. The bench of Chief Justice Aloke Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar called for records and remarks from the government relating to the premature release of the petitioner, who was convicted to life by the Siddipet sessions judge in November 2008. The petitioner is serving out his sentence in the Cherlapally central prison. Yadagiri said that though he had completed a sentence of 14 years he has not got any relief. His family members were dependent on him, and there were many prisoners, who had completed 14 years of sentence.
Case against Outlook Directors quashed
Justice K. Surender of the Telangana High Court quashed a defamation case against the directors of the publishing house of Outlook, an English weekly magazine. The case was taken cognisance of the complaint of a special public prosecutor over an article in a column called ‘Deep Throat’ published on July 6, 2015. Pradyumna Kumar Reddy, counsel for the petitioners, said the cognisance order is a non-speaking order and no reasons had been assigned for taking cognizance, which is mandatory under the law. The trial court took cognisance without recording the evidence of Smita Sabharwal, the complainant, nor was any other witness examined. The counsel argued that in the very next issue of the magazine it had published a regret/rejoinder. The public prosecutor argued that the content had all the ingredients of defamation. The court quashed the proceedings initiated on the directors of the company Unnikrishnan, Vinayak Premchand Agarwal and Suman Rajan. In an independent proceeding filed by three functionaries of Outlook, Sasidharan, its editor Krishna Prasad and assistant editor Madhavi Tata, and two others dispensed with their presence under Section 205 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and said that they can be represented by counsel.
Vires of CGST Act challenged
A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court admitted a writ plea challenging the vires of Section 16 (2) c of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act. The court directed the superintendent of central tax and customs and the revenue department to explain their stance regarding the conditions imposed that an assessee could avail input tax credit only when the supplier had paid the tax. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar, was dealing with a writ plea filed by Olympus Motors pvt. ltd., challenging the provisions of the CGST Tax Act and an order of the Central Tax Authority for denying the benefit of '17 lakh input tax credit. The petitioner contended that the recovery of interest and penalty was illegal and contrary to the provisions of the Act.
HC stays summons of newspaper editors and records
Justice Chillakur Sumalatha of Telangana High Court stayed proceedings before the senior civil judge, Nizamabad, summoning editors of six Telugu dailies and records of newspapers. The judge made the order in a civil revision preferred by Chitineni Koteswar Rao and his wife. The petitioners sought to suspend an order summoning the editors with complete records pertaining to a report published on November 6, 2013. One P. Vittal Mohan filed a defamation case against the petitioners before the court. K. Durga Prasad, counsel for the petitioner, said the Nizamabad court had erred in requiring the editors to appear even before issues to be adjudicated were decided and a list of witnesses made. The judge granted suspension of the proceedings before the lower court till October 5. The matter has been adjourned to September 26 for further hearing.
Unauthorised places of worship: HC notice to govt
A plea relating to the unauthorised construction of places of worship at public places came up for judicial scrutiny at the High Court on Friday. Purre Dinesh Kumar moved a PIL complaining of multiple incidents of construction of places of worship without permission. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar, took the matter on file and granted four weeks to the government and civil authorities to respond.
HC stalls arrest of neighbour in a girl’s missing case
Justice Anupama Chakravarthy of the Telangana High Court directed the police not to arrest a person on mere suspicion in an alleged case of kidnapping. The judge was dealing with quash proceedings filed by Thulasi Reddy contending that he was neither an accomplice nor the kidnapper of a girl, who went missing from Narayanpet. The mother of the missing girl lodged a complaint that her daughter, who had gone to buy vegetables, was kidnapped. She named the petitioner in her complaint; she did not name the kidnapper but said that her daughter was kidnapped from the adjacent land belonging to the petitioner. The court found that prima facie she ought to have filed a missing complaint and not a case of kidnapping since no one was a witness to the alleged act of kidnapping. The court directed the Marikal, Narayanpet, police to follow CrPc Section 41-A norms and issue summons to the petitioner and not to arrest him.
