Telangana High Court judge recuses self from hearing Revanth Reddy’s quash petition

Hyderabad: Justice K Lakshman of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday recused himself from hearing the quash petition filed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, seeking to set aside an FIR registered against him in 2016 by the Gachibowli Police under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The FIR pertains to a land dispute in Survey No. 127 of Gopanpally village, in which N Peddiraju, Director of SC Mutual Aided Cooperative Housing Society, alleged that Revanth Reddy’s brother, Kondal Reddy and E Lakshmaiah had encroached upon their land on the instructions of Revanth Reddy and that he was insulted in the name of caste during the course of the incident.

The complaint further stated that structures on the disputed site were demolished using a JCB machine. The police named Revanth Reddy as Accused No. 3 in the case. Justice Lakshman, during the hearing, stated that he would not take up the matter as the complainant, N Peddiraju, had engaged him as an advocate in other legal matters in the past.

Citing a potential conflict of interest, the judge directed the High Court Registry to place the quash petition before the Chief Justice for assigning it to another bench. Revanth Reddy had approached the High Court in 2020, seeking to quash the FIR and related proceedings on the grounds that the case was politically motivated and lacked merit.