High Court Orders Official Republic Day Event As Per Norms

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the State government to conduct the official Republic Day celebrations in the State as per the guidelines issued by the union government.

The High Court issued an interim order in a writ petition filed over the Republic Day celebrations, and made it clear that the government should follow all official norms.

The High Court in its directions stated that a parade should also be conducted as part of the event.

A writ petition was filed during a lunch motion in the High Court over the Telangana government not conducting the event even after a circular was issued by the union government directing State governments to conduct the celebrations.

The bench headed by Justice P Madhavi Devi in her observations also rapped the State government for using COVID-19 as an excuse to not conduct the event.

As per tradition, the Republic Day event is conducted with both the Governor and Chief Minister attending it at the Parade Grounds in the city every year. However, in the wake of the strained relations between the BRS government and Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, there was no news about the Republic day event being held this year.

It was reported that the Telangana Governor would hoist the national flag at Raj Bhavan on Thursday. On January 19, the Governor alleged that protocol was not being followed and that she did not receive any communication from the government on conducting the Republic Day event, which brought to light that there no event was going to held in the city.

Following this, a writ petition was filed in the Telangana High Court seeking directions to the government asking it to conduct the national event as per the guidelines.