Justice league: Telangana HC quashes 2 GOs, orders elections to TS Medical Council within 3 months

HC quashes 2 GOs, orders elections to TS Medical Council within 3 months

A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and CV Bhaskar Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday overruled GO No. 68 dated August 3, 2015, and also ordered the State government to hold elections to the Telangana State Medical Council within three months. The GO had reduced the number of elected Medical Council members. Dr B Arundati and others had contested the GO.

Further, the interim Telangana State Medical Council established through GO No. 15 dated January 6, 2016, was declared by the court to be legally unsustainable. “The interim TS Medical Council, however, shall continue for three months to ensure that there is no void, by which time elections and nominations to the Council shall be completed,” the bench said.

The court ordered the Special Chief Secretary, Health, to take all necessary actions, including holding elections and nominating members in accordance with Section 3(2) of the Telangana Medical Practitioners Registration Act, 1968 within three months of receiving a copy of the order.

The bench was hearing two complaints filed by the petitioners. The primary complaint was that there hasn’t been any election to the Council since 2007 and the interim Council was running the show. The second complaint was against GO No. 68 regarding elected members to the Council. Initially, there were 13 elected members; this number was eventually lowered to seven, and finally to five. However, the number of nominated members was not decreased proportionately.

“This defeats the purpose and goals of the Medical Practitioners Registration Act as well as the autonomy of the Council and prevents the elected members from having a meaningful voice. The above-mentioned situation led to the filing of the writ petition,” the petitioners said.

GHMC told to file counter in PIL against Metro Rail

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the GHMC to respond to a PIL against alleged unlawful developments in Jubilee Hills. A bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji was hearing the PIL filed against the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited for developing an unapproved commercial complex in the centre of the Jubilee Hills Check-post.

According to the PIL filed by one M Indrasen Chowdhary, the Hyderabad Metro Rail has acquired property for building a Metro Rail flyover. It was reported that the HMRL was developing a business complex without sufficient authorisation on 300 sq yds of the adjacent public road. The court determined that the GHMC counter was required since the petitioner claims that the construction was illegal.