Telangana issue: SC advances date of hearing

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today advanced
to February 22 the hearing of a writ petition challenging the
announcement made by the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on
December 9, 2009 relating to Telangana state.

A Bench comprising of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and
Justices R M Lodha and Deepak Verma posted the matter for
February 22 on the plea of Bondada Purushottam Yadav, a
practising advocate from Andhra Pradesh, that the matter be
listed urgently.
The petition was initially listed for March 29.
In a brief hearing, Yadav argued that such statements
creates rifts among the communities having stakes in the
matter and are inimical to the national interests.
The apex court had earlier dismissed a PIL filed by a
former Member of Parliament M Narayan Reddy seeking a
direction to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker to accept the
resignation submitted by 139 MLAs on the Telangana issue.
Chidambaram's statement that a mechanism for forming the
new state was being put in place by the government had been
followed by several days of strikes and demonstration
throughout Andhra Pradesh.