A writ petition has been filed in the High Court challenging the appointment of Congress MP Kanumuri Bapiraju as chairman and 10 others as members of the board of trustees of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams for a period of two years.
The petitioner, PV Vijaya Bhasker, an advocate from Mahbubnagar district, scontended that the appointees, who included public representatives, were not entitled to become trustees for the reason that their appointments were made against the set principles of law and rules pertaining to AP Charitable Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act. "After the expiry of the tenure of the previous board on August 25, 2012, I was looking forward to issuance of a notification to enable myself to apply as a member of the board. But to my sudden surprise the government, overnight, appointed a chairman and 10 members to the TTD board."
The petitioner requested the court to grant stay on the functioning of the chairman and members of the TTD board pending disposal of the writ petition. He also wanted the court to direct the government to initiate fresh proceedings to appoint trustees by following the procedure.
Principal secretary (revenue, endowments-III), TTD chairman Kanumuri Bapiraju, newly-appointed board members and the TTD executive officer have been named as respondents.
PIL for Reconstitution of Women's Commission
A public interest petition has been filed in the High Court seeking a direction to the state government to reconstitute the AP Women's Commission with a chairwoman and six members.
Petitioner S.Malathi Rani, state president of Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha (women's wing of BJP), said the government failed to fill the posts even though the tenure of the members and chairwoman ended in 2008. In spite of several representations to the chief minister and the minister for women and child welfare, the commission was not reconstituted which was mandatory as per the provisions of the AP Women's Commission Act, 1998. The state government had also not responded to her 24-hour hunger strike undertaken on July 25 this year with the demand for immediate reconstitution of the commission to protect the rights of women, she submitted.
The government constituted the first women's commission on June 1, 1999 which held office for five years till May 31, 2004. The second commission was constituted on January 27, 2005 and its chairperson and members functioned for nearly three years. She requested the court to declare the government's inaction for four years to constitute the next commission as illegal and arbitrary.