HC declines to vacate stay on Kalyana Lakshmi, Shaadi Mubarak

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday decided not to lift the stay on the implementation of the State government's Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes and the disbursement of funds to beneficiaries under these schemes. Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, who issued the stay order on August 12 after hearing a petition filed by HC advocate Vijay Gopal, adjourned the hearing to Thursday.

The judge also ordered social media platforms to remove content posted by Telugu Scribe, which was deemed to have published misleading information about the petitioner's plea questioning the operation of the welfare schemes. The government had filed a petition to vacate the stay. When the matter resurfaced for hearing during the post-lunch session, the judge initially declined to hear the stay vacate plea.

However, Additional Advocate General Mohammed Imran Khan urged the bench to consider the matter due to the urgency, explaining that the stay order had halted the government's disbursement of money to beneficiaries under the two schemes. The judge questioned the government on why it was not prioritizing compensation for land owners who had given up their lands for irrigation and other projects, while simultaneously allocating budget for welfare schemes.

The AAG informed the court that the State Cabinet had approved the budgetary allocations for the welfare schemes and assured prioritization of compensation to land losers. The hearing will continue on Thursday.