Petition against POTO in HC

hyderabad: communist party leader bodapati veera raghavulu has moved the a p high court challenging the provisions of the prevention of terrorism ordinance poto). the writ petition is likely to come up for admission on wednesday. senior counsel s ramachandra rao made a mention before the chief justice that in view of, what called the immediate urgency of matter, the petitioner challenged various provisions including power of arrest, forfeiture of property, definition of terrorist and procedures to be followed by the special courts.in a 35-paged affidavit the petitioner challenged the ordinance as a serious violation of right to life guaranteed under the constitution. attacking the very concept of preventive detention under a written constitution as an anachronism, the writ petition raises serious issues on the question of individual liberty. questions that have political overtures have been also raised in the writ petition, including the political will of the government to control terrorism. the attitude of those in power to curtail freedom on the grounds of enforcing the law of the land is suspect, the petitioner contended. gender justice a division bench of the a p high court comprising justice bilal nazki and justice e dharma rao struck down section 66 (1) (b) of the factories act as being unconstitutional. the bench was dealing with the provision that no employer shall employ women worker between 7 pm and 6 am. employees of the super spinning mills hindupur filed the writ petition complaining gender inequality and said that other professionals such as nurses, doctors and the police do not have such limitations. it was also specifically contended that the government had issued orders granting exemption in the case of the fishing industry too. the bench, speaking through justice nazki, declared that the provision was in the teeth of the guarantee under the constitution.