A day after the Andhra Pradesh High Court set aside a state government order that ‘compensated’ 70 people for being ‘falsely’ accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blasts case and ordered the amount to be recovered, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government said it would contest the order.
“The chief minister will discuss the issue with the advocate general and take a decision on filing an appeal in the Supreme Court,” sources in the chief minister’s office said.
In a first in the country, the Andhra government had in January 2012 paid Rs 3 lakh each to 20 people and Rs 20,000 each to 50 people as compensation for wrongful arrest and torture on charges of terrorism.
Hearing the petition by social worker Venkatesh Goud, the bench on Monday asked how such a measure could be taken by the government. The government had no such jurisdiction or authority, the court ruled.
(With agency inputs)