Telangana high court allows Konatham to travel to US

Hyderabad: A vacation bench of the Telangana high court comprising Justices Surepalli Nanda and J Sreenivas Rao allowed BRS social media activist Konatham Dileep Reddy to travel to the US, where he attended a memorial book launch in memory of his late father in Virginia recently.Earlier, a single judge had refused interim relief, citing 10 FIRs against Dileep Reddy and active look-out circulars (LOCs), and deferred the matter to June. Challenging this, he filed an appeal, arguing the delay would defeat the purpose of his travel.Overruling objections to the maintainability of the appeal, the court relied on prior rulings and set aside the May 1 order, and permitted Dileep Reddy to travel between May 9 and June 11.Senior counsel K Vivek Reddy, appearing for Dileep Reddy, clarified that his client was an accused in only two of the ten FIRs, and the LOC should not restrict his fundamental right to travel.The bench ruled in his favour, affirming that being named in a criminal case does not negate one's constitutional right to travel under Article 21. Citing SC precedents — Sumit Mehta v. State of NCT of Delhi, Satwant Singh Sawhney v. D. Ramarathnam, and Menaka Gandhi v. Union of India — the court held that personal liberty includes international travel.Justice Nanda said denying travel for such a personal event would result in serious injustice, especially when no threat to national security was claimed. The bench also noted that Reddy had been allowed to travel abroad earlier under a similar suspension of the LOC in October 2024.