Telangana HC directs notices to agri ministry over spurious pesticides

Ravi Krishna Vattem, an advocate filed this PIL seeking directions to constitute a Task force/anti-counterfeit pesticides Committee to conduct a joint inspection to contain the counterfeit pesticides.

1. A Two Judge bench of the Telangana High Court comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti directed notices to Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Chief Secretary, State of Telangana, and The Agriculture Commissioner and Director while dealing with a PIL pertaining to spurious pesticides causing severe health hazards, crops loss damage. Ravi Krishna Vattem, an advocate filed this PIL seeking directions to constitute a Task force/anti-counterfeit pesticides Committee to conduct a joint inspection to contain the counterfeit pesticides. The PIL also sought directions for notifying in an official gazette, the reports of samples collected from the various shops/ distributors. It should be mandatory for each and every pesticide shop to analyse the impacts before sale. Wide publicity should be given regarding the spurious/fake pesticides, the PIL sought. The petitioner also stressed the need to notify the reports in the official gazette as well as in all the public platforms so as to sensitize the farmers and public. The Petitioner also suggested to introduce scientific devices like QR Code for each and every distributor/shop for complete traceability of stocks available in the premises and fixing the accountability for spurious/fake pesticides. The court took on record the said submissions and admitted the matter. The matter was adjourned for the response of the officials.

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2. The Telangana High Court on Friday issued notices to Telangana Vaidya Vidana Sabha, Union of India, State government, Health department and others in a public interest litigation case pertaining to non-implementation of provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017. The division bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti was dealing with a suo moto taken up public interest litigation based on a letter addressed by Rapolu Bhaskar, Advocate. The letter raised concerns about implementation of the provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017. It also sought for appointment of the State authority and district committees to provide the mental health facilities and treatment to the needy persons and also to protect the 8 Lakh Mentally disabled persons in the State. The letter highlighted the duties and responsibilities of authorities and the need to conduct the awareness camps. The need to provide treatment to the victims was stressed upon. The bench adjourned the matter for hearing the response of authorities.

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3. Justice K Sujana of Telangana High Court on Friday directed police authorities not to take any coercive steps against Kadire Krishna who was accused of criticizing and insulting Hindu Deity Sri. Lord Venkateshwara in a Public speech. The Judge was dealing with a Quash petition filed by Kadire Krishnaiah for quashing FIR which was registered by Chikoti Praveen Kumar, BJP activist alleging that Krishna speech has put people of Hindu religion into agony by insulting their religious feelings. The FIR was registered under new BNS Act for the offence of Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. The de-facto complainant raised allegations that, being in noble profession petitioner is misusing his high standard of knowledge and intellectuality to promote atheism by passing the abusing comments on Hindu duties. He also said that the religious comments are made for his personal and political gain. Senior Counsel V Raghunath, appearing for petitioner contended that video was of 5 years old (In the year 2019) and in fact the video was not uploaded by the Petitioner, and the same has no relevance for today. He also pointed that the De-facto complainant out of enthusiasm without going into the total video, only by picking a portion of video had filed the instant case against the petitioner. The counsel further contended that only to suppress the voice of a social activist, defacto Complainant is trying to rope the petitioner into one crime. The counsel also highlighted that there was no deliberate intention to hurt any religion. The court considering the said contentions directed the police authorities to not to take any coercive steps and posted the matter to September 9.