State Minorities Commission (For The State Of Telangana And A. v. Union Of India,

HON'BLE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN AND HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE A. SHANKAR NARAYANA WRIT PETITION No.40568 OF 2016 ORDER: (Per Hon'ble The Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan) While initially putting forth his submissions regarding the entitlement of the Chairman and Members of the Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Commission to be paid salaries from May, 2016 till date, Sri S. Niranjan Reddy, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, later stated that it would suffice if the records, which are under the custody of the Chairman and Members of the Commission, be permitted to be handed over to any Officer designated by the Government of Telangana to take charge thereof.

The learned Advocate General for the State of Telangana would submit that Smt. Padma Sundari has been appointed as the Secretary to the Commission today, and all the records of the Commission could be handed over to her. He would take an objection to the maintainability of the writ petition itself contending that there is no State Minorities Commission for the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh; Mr. Abid Rasool Khan ceased to be the Chairman in May, 2016 itself as his term of office was not extended thereafter; and, as such, the writ petition filed by a nonexistent Commission represented by a non-existent Chairman should not be entertained.

While legal issues of considerable importance are raised in the writ petition, we see no reason to examine these questions in the present writ petition in the light of the aforesaid objections

HACJ & ASNJ W.P. No.40568 of 2016 raised by the learned Advocate General to the maintainability of the writ petition. Suffice it to make it clear that dismissal of this writ petition would not preclude the legal issues, raised in this writ petition, from being agitated in independent legal proceedings including by Mr. Abid Rasool Khan, the deponent of the writ affidavit.

Subject to the above observations, the Writ Petition fails and is, accordingly, dismissed. No costs. As a sequel thereto, Miscellaneous Petitions, if any pending in the Writ Petition, stand disposed of.

________________________________ RAMESH RANGANATHAN, ACJ ________________________________ A. SHANKAR NARAYANA, J November 30, 2016.

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