LEGAL NOTES
'Whip concept applicable to local bodies'

hyderabad: a division bench of the a p high court comprising chief justice s b sinha and justice v v s rao on thursday declared that the concept of 'whip' is applicable even in the case of local bodies. the bench how ever held that the political party must serve the same to the party members prior to the election process. the bench was dealing with a writ petition filed by madhavarao desai whose election as president of mudhole mandal was set-aside on the ground that he contested against the official tdp candidate jadhav subhash rao and thus violated the party whip.senior counsel s ramachandra rao had contended that the concept of whip was alien to the panchayat raj system and the anti-defection law would not apply to local bodies.the bench rejected the plea and found that the concept was introduced by a valid legislation into the panchayat raj act. the bench however allowed the writ petition on the ground that the petitioner was entitled to be served the whip prior to the commencement of the election process and non-communication made the impugned proceedings illegal. ---- vaccine samples requested justice b sudhershan reddy of the a p high court on thursday directed the centre of cellular and molecular biology to submit to the court a report on the samples of the hepatitis b vaccine produced and marketed by bharat biotech international limited. the judge was dealing with a writ petition filed by prof p m bharghav seeking a direction to prohibit bharat biotech from manufacturing, marketing or administering hepatitis b vaccine using pichia pastoris as a vector. according to the petitioner the company had obtained necessary licence for using saccharomyces cerevisiac as a vector. he contended that another manufacturer of the vaccine, shanta biotech was employing pichia pastoris and he had a received a complaint from shanta biotech on the use of the said vector by bharat biotech without the authority of law. the petitioner described the action as an 'unethical practice' and "in public interest" the company should be precluded from marketing the hepatitis vaccine. the judge directed the petitioner to supply two samples of the vaccine to the ccmb, which shall independently collect two samples from the market.the institute shall submit its report on the said samples to the court on october 9. ---- cyberabad notification justice b sudhershan reddy of the a p high court on thursday directed the state government to place before the court the file relating to the notification on of cyberabad. the judge was dealing with a writ petition filed by one satyavathi complaining that she had submitted a plan to the municipal authorities seeking permission to construct a house at serilingampalli. the application was rejected by the authorities on the ground that the issuance of a notification of cyberabad was awaited. the judge wondered how the authorities could refuse permission on the ground of the intended action and further directed the authorities to produce the relevant file to examine its content.