High Court summons to TTD EO

Hyderabad, Oct 25: A Common division bench of Hyderabad High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Ganga Rao, on Tuesday directed the Executive Officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) to appear in person in court next week to explain why counter affidavit and action taken report was not filed for last ten months with regard to fleecing of pilgrims by hotels at Tirumala.

The bench expressed deep anguish at the manner the TTD is dealing with such serious issue and the response to orders of the court.



The bench was dealing with a PIL filed by Parihara Sevasamithi through its founder president Bharadwaja Chakrapani. He told the court that while granting the license to run a restaurant, the TTD imposes the condition that the named items shall alone be sold as per rates fixed by it. The hotels are charging 500% more.

In November 2016 the bench asked the EO to file counter affidavit and action is taken a report on the erring restaurants.

The case was to be listed on December 6, 2016. The case had come up for hearing in the first week of October 2017. The bench found that there was no response and adjourned the case to Tuesday.