New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday
directed the Andhra Pradesh government to furnish "proof" of
the reported intelligence inputs to establish that Maoists
have infiltrated the Osmania University, the hotbed of the
ongoing Telangana agitation.
"Where is the input of the infiltration inside the
campus? What is the proof available? We would like to have
it," a bench of Justices GS Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly
observed while passing the direction.
The apex court posted the matter for further hearing
for February 25 after senior counsel Harish Salve said inputs
would be furnished before the bench either tomorrow or the day
after.
The apex court passed the direction after Salve
repeated the state's arguments that deployment of paramilitary
forces was indispensable as the movement is instigated by the
Maoists.
The bench also extended till February 25 the stay
imposed on the AP High Court order directing withdrawal of the
paramilitary forces from the university campus.
A division bench of the High Court had on February 16
upheld the directions of a single judge to move out special
forces from Osmania University campus.
The state government had assailed the February 16
order, saying the High Court cannot order the removal of
paramilitary forces from the campus which is a hotbed of the
agitation for a separate Telangana state.
The bench had said the single judge was right in his
analysis that the Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed
in the university campus without any study of the situation.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 12:27