Telangana High Court advises VROs to join the new postings

Hyderabad: Justice P. Madhavi Devi of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday refused to grant any relief to the Village Revenue Officers in a batch of writ petitions seeking time in joining newly allotted departments. The judge was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by various VROs in the state. It may be recalled […]

Hyderabad: Justice P. Madhavi Devi of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday refused to grant any relief to the Village Revenue Officers in a batch of writ petitions seeking time in joining newly allotted departments. The judge was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by various VROs in the state. It may be recalled that the state government issued an order on June 23, 2022 to redeploy the services of erstwhile VROs in any government department, other than the Revenue department, as per administrative exigencies.

The petitioners contended that sufficient time was not given to them for joining the new allotted departments. They complained that the allotment was done without following the seniority. The government pleader argued that there were 5,088 VROs without work attached to Tahsildar offices against the sanctioned strength of 7,039 posts. All of them were now being accommodated in different departments through draw of lots. He further contended that the move was towards the optimum utilization of manpower for effective functioning. After hearing both sides, the court advised the petitioners to first join the allotted posts and declined to interfere with the appointments. The judge directed the government to file counters to hear the case in detail and posted it after four weeks.

Compensation for police torture victims

A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court comprising of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice S Nanda on Wednesday directed the government to consider paying compensation to victims of custodial torture. The panel was dealing with a suo moto writ petition taken up based on a newspaper report complaining of custodial torture by the police officials of Chennaraopet Police Station. The article alleged that the victim was picked up by the police for questioning in a murder case and was tortured by the police.

The Advocate General submitted that disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the concerned police officers. The panel observed that the judicial enquiry report submitted by Principal District Judge, Warangal revealed that victims were subjected to custodial torture. The panel opined that apart from disciplinary action, compensation is also to be paid to the victims. The panel will continue to hear the matter on September 13.

2 BHK allotments

Justice T Vinod Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday reserved for orders a case pertaining to irregularities in allotment of double bedroom houses by the government. The judge was dealing with a petition filed by Vennala and others of Munipally Mandal, Sangareddy district who are unsuccessful allottees of the scheme. The petitioners contended that the authorities violated many procedural aspects in the process of allotment. They further contended that a Grama Sabha was not conducted as per law and there was no transparency in the process. Earlier, the court directed the government pleader to submit the minutes of the Grams Sabha of the village. When the government pleader failed to provide the relevant records of the same, the court indicating that the process was not duly followed, reserved the case for orders.