'Vijayawada Utsav': SC rejects plea against Andhra Pradesh HC order

New Delhi, Sep 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea against an Andhra Pradesh High Court order over the utilisation of endowment land for exhibition in the name of "Vijayawada Utsav".

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prashant Kumar Mishra refused to hear the plea against the September 17 order of a high court division bench.

"We are not inclined to interfere with the interim order," the bench said.

The division bench had stayed a single judge's order which said the proposal for converting the agricultural lands belonging to the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple for commercial purposes cannot be permitted.

The single judge acted on a plea against the proposal for utilising the endowment land for annual exhibition and entrust the same to a private entity.

The petitioners before the single judge were the devotees of the temple.

The single judge directed the authorities not to dump any material on the subject land and not to proceed with any further proposal for using the endowment land belonging to the temple for any commercial purposes.

The single judge's order was challenged before a division bench, which did not wish to make any further observations except to the extent that the September 16 order deserves to be stayed till the issues were considered by the single judge in the writ petition.

The division bench observed that it appeared that the land belonging to the temple in Godugupeta, Machilipatnam in Krishna district, was sought to be given for 56 days on payment of Rs 45 lakh for the purpose of conducting an exhibition. PTI ABA ABA AMK AMK