Telangana HC grants relief to BrahMos Aerospace

The panel was dealing with a writ petition filed by BrahMos Aerospace, which provides material for the manufacture of missiles for the Indian Armed Forces

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes not to harass BrahMos Aerospace Private Ltd for any documents that contain secrets of the Indian Armed Forces.

A two-judge panel comprising Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice T Vinod Kumar was dealing with a writ petition filed by BrahMos Aerospace, which provides material for the manufacture of missiles for the Indian Armed Forces. The company pleaded that the Assistant Commissioner issued an Assessment Order for 2014-15 which is also barred by limitation. The counsel for the State government submitted that the objections filed by the dealer were considered but the authorities required more documents to consider all the representations.

---

The bench observed that the State government cannot insist organisations dealing with defence secrets to produce documents since they require high-security clearance. The government cannot compel these organisations to violate official secrets agreements. The panel granted interim stay of the ongoing assessment and issued a notice to the Assistant Commissioner.

Tender notice challenged

Justice A Abhishek Reddy of the High Court on Wednesday took on file a writ petition challenging a tender notification issued by the Chief Engineer & others for awarding a contract in Srisailam Dam West, Nagarkurnool. The writ petition is filed by V Chatru challenging the tender notice on the ground that it does not provide 50% reservation in allotment of the contract to the local schedule tribes candidates. The petitioner sought a direction to set aside the said tender notice and direct the respondents to issue revised tenders duly reserving 50 per cent to the local scheduled tribe candidates. Standing counsel, however, pointed out that the area does not come under the scheduled area. The judge adjourned the matter by four weeks to enable the authorities to file their response. He, however, said any proceeding concerning the tender notice is subject to the outcome of the writ petition.

SC atrocity case: Squash plea dismissed

Justice K Lakshman of the High court dismissed a petition to quash a criminal complaint lodged under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act.

The petition to quash the case on the file of the V Additional District and Sessions Judge, Karimnagar, was filed by Jakulla Narisiah, a retired employee in the Electricity Department, his wife and son.

The complainant, who belongs to the SC community, said he lent some money to the petitioner but when asked to repay, the latter refused and abused in the name of the caste. The petitioners contend that the contents of the complaint are civil in nature and there are also contradictions in the statements of the complainant. “The contention of the petitioners’ counsel that there is no public view when the incident occurred cannot be accepted at this stage,” Justice Lakshman said.

He reiterated, “It was not necessary that a meticulous analysis of a case should be done before the trial to find out whether a case would end in conviction or acquittal.”

---

Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.

Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .

---