High Court questions temples in public places

HYDERABAD: Rapping both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for not adhering to the policy guidelines framed to discourage building of religious structures in parks, in the middle of roads, on pavements and other public places in Hyderabad and other cities of the two states, the

Hyderabad High Court

has sought the explanation of the two governments.
The bench of acting Chief Justice

Ramesh Ranganathan

and Justice A

Shankar Narayana

gave this direction while hearing a public interest petition filed by an advocate of the HC. The petitioner brought to the notice of the bench the order of a Supreme Court that made it mandatory for the states to not allow such structures in public places and also the guidelines prepared by the undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2010. He accused the authorities of violating these orders and allowing religious structures to come up in public places.

The bench while issuing notices to the chief secretaries of both the states, however, directed the petitioner to remove the names of the chief ministers from the list of respondents. The state is represented by a chief secretary and that is sufficient, it said and posted the case to November 15.