HYDERABAD: As the Supreme Court stayed the the Telangana High Court’s proceedings on the Shadnagar ‘encounter’, a division bench of the high court on Thursday directed state Advocate General BS Prasad to immediately make a mention before the apex court seeking clarification on the bodies of the four accused, which are preserved at Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad, and to inform it of the SC’s response by Friday.
“Now that the proceedings have been stayed by the Supreme Court, this court would not be justified to pass any orders on this issue. Whatever orders have to be passed, have to be necessarily passed by the Supreme Court only,” the bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, observed.
On Monday, the bench directed the state government to preserve the bodies of the accused till Friday, and said they should be shifted to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad in case it was difficult to preserve them at the Mahbubnagar district hospital due to lack of adequate facilities. It also directed the state to produce documentary evidence on whether the police complied with the Supreme Court guidelines issued in the PUCL vs State of Maharashtra case of 2014.
When the matter came up for hearing at 10.30 am on Thursday, the bench posted the matter to 12.45 pm saying the Supreme Court was seized of the matter and was expected to pass orders on the issue by afternoon.When the hearing resumed at 12.45 pm, the chief justice said he had come to know that the Supreme Court had stayed the proceedings pending before the high court, and hence, it was not justified to pass any orders on the case.
When the counsels appearing for the petitioners said the Supreme Court had not passed any orders regarding the four bodies, which are being preserved at Gandhi Hospital, the chief justice asked the advocate general to respond. Senior advocate D Prakash Reddy, who was appointed as amicus curiae in the case, told the court that there is an ambiguity on the orders of the Supreme Court on the preservation of the bodies.
In reply, the AG said he had spoken to senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, representing the state government before the Supreme Court, and the latter said that the apex court has not passed any directions on the dead bodies. In fact, the kith and kin of the four deceased persons are ready to take the bodies, he added.
The chief justice then directed the AG to make an urgent mention, on behalf of the state government, before the Supreme Court seeking clarification on the said four bodies.