Source: newindianexpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IJAYAWADA: The division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court \ncomprising Acting Chief Justice C Praveen Kumar and Justice M \nSatyanarayana Murthy heard arguments against the grant of VIP break \ndarshan in Tirumala.<\/ins><\/p>\n\n\n\n The petitioner\u2019s counsel Umesh Chandra \nPVG appealed the court to declare the action of respondents in granting \n\u2018Very Break Darshanam\u2019 to a specific category of devotees as illegal, \nunconstitutional, arbitrary and ultra vires of Articles 14, 25 and 26 of\n the Constitution of India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also urged the court to give \ndirections to end the categorization of devotees as being done by the \nState government of Andhra Pradesh and Tirumala Tirupathi Devastanams \n(TTD) board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The TTD was supposed to file its counter\n on Monday, but the TTD standing counsel informed the bench that \u2018VIP \nBreak Darshan\u2019 would be done away with and that the chairman had made a \nstatement to that effect recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the petitioner\u2019s counsel \nsubmitted before the court that the TTD board has not been constituted \nyet and a unilateral statement by chairman without the consent of the \nboard doesn\u2019t pass the muster of legal scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, the counsel informed the court \nthat the TTD was contemplating to change the nomenclature of the \u2018VIP \nBreak Darshan\u2019 and therefore the new envisaged darshan should not \npossess the character of the L1, L2 and L3 darshans and the counsel \nfurther argued that the government should submit an affidavit to that \neffect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After hearing the petitioner at length, the bench directed the counsel representing TTD to file an affidavit by Thursday.<\/p>\n