IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE TWENTY EIGHTH DAY OF MARCH TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT: THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE A. GOPAL REDDY AND THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE P. SWAROOP REDDY WRIT PETITION Nos.26772 OF 2006 AND 5124 OF 2007 WRIT PETITION No.26772 OF 2006: BETWEEN: V. Roja, D/o. V. Tilak, Ankuram, Women and Child Development Society, Admn. Off : 12-13-309, Street No. 2, Tarnaka, Secunderabad - 500 017. (Forwarded by High Court Legal Services Committee, Hyd.) ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Station House Officer, S.R. Nagar Police Station, Hyderabad. 2 The District Collector, Hyderabad District at Hyderabad. 3 The Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City, Basheerabagh, Hyderabad. 4 The Director General of Police, Government of A.P., Saifabad, Hyderabad. 5 The Government of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by its Prl. Secretary, Women Development and Child Welfare and Disabled Welfare Department, Secretariat, Hyderabad. 6 The Government of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by its Prl. Secretary, Home Department, Secretariat, at Hyderabad 7 Shivani Ladies Hostel (Sneha Sadan), Rep by Smt. Y. Ratnakumari D.No. 8-3-897/4/5, Beside Sri Sharada Degree College for Women, Nagarjuna Nagar Colony, Yellareddyguda, Hyd. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue an Order, direction, or a Writ, more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus to call for the records and remarks from the Respondents herein in and connected to (i) the maintenance of the ladies Hostel under the name and style "SHIVANI LADIES HOSTEL" alias SNEHA SADAN at Yellareddyguda, Hyderabad by Smt. V. Ratna Kumari, without obtaining proper license from the concerned authorities; without caring the comfort of inmates; colluding with police officials in evicting the persons who questions the management, more enumerated in the petition(copy enclosed); and this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to pass appropriate orders directing the concerned authorities to probe into the matter and to take action against the responsible and to pass such other or further orders as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case. Counsel for the Petitioner: LETTER Counsel for Respondent No. : G.P. FOR HOME WRIT PETITION No.26772 OF 2006: BETWEEN: V.Roja D/o.Tilak, Taruni Residency, Ladies Hostel, 1-8-670/28 (SRT-29) behind - A.P. Gas Company, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad - 44. (Forwarded by the Secretary, High Court Legal Services Committee, Hyderabad.) ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Station House Officer, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad. 2 The District Collector, Hyderabad District at Hyderabad. 3 The Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad at Basheerbagh, Hyderabad. 4 The Director General of Police, Govt. of A.P., Hyderabad. 5 The Government of A.P., Rep. by its Prl. Secretary, Women Development and Child Welfare and Disabled Welfare Department, Secretariat, Hyderabad. 6 The Government of A.P., rep. by its Secretary, Home Department, Secretariat, Hyderabad. 7 Sri Taruni REsidency Ladies Hostel, Rep. by its Manager. D.No.1-8-670/28 (SRT 29) Behind HP Gas Company, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad – 44. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue an Order, direction, or a Writ, more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus to call for the records and remarks from the Respondents herein in and connected to (i) continuing the Petitioner herein in the "Sri Taruni Residency" at Vidyanagar, Hyderabad as per High Court Order dated 05.02.2007 in WP.No.26772 of 2006 and; (ii) harassing the Petitioner herein by Mahender Reddy and Damodar Reddy of the said Sri Taruni Hostel, more enumerated in the Petition (Copy enclosed herewith); and this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to pass appropriate orders directing the concerned to allow the Petitioner to continue stay at the Sri Taruni Residency Hostel, at Vidyanagar, Hyderabad as per High Court Order dated 05.02.2007 in WP. No.26772 of 2006; to probe into the matter and to take suitable legal action against the concerned; to provide police protection to the Petitioner herein and to pass such other or further orders as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case. Counsel for the Petitioner : TELEGRAM Counsel for Respondent No. : G.P. FOR HOME The Court made the following : COMMON ORDER: (Per Hon’ble Sri Justice P. Swaroop Reddy) Writ Petition No.26772 of 2006 is taken upon on the basis of the complaint dated 5-12-2006 given by one V. Roja, D/o. V. Tilak, while she was staying in “Shivani Ladies Hostel” alias “Sneha Sadan” at Yellareddyguda, Hyderabad and Writ Petition No.5124 of 2007 is taken upon the basis of the complaint dated 26-2-2007 given by the same person while she was staying in another hostel viz., “Taruni Residency Ladies Hostel” D. No.1-8-670/28 (SRT-29), Behind HP Gas Company, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad. 2. The main grievance of the petitioner is of some inconvenience being caused to her in the working Women’s Hostels, which from the circumstances and counters filed etc. would show that her allegations may not be totally correct and in case there is any inconvenience to her, there is no compulsion for her to live in those hostels. When several other inmates of the hostel have no such problem stated by her, there is no possibility of her being targetted for creating problems. On the other hand, the contention of the managements and other residents is that she herself has become a source of problem for the managements and other residents. As far as the grievance of the petitioner is concerned, we would leave it here itself suggesting that in case she is not comfortable in any of the working women’s hostels, she can stay elsewhere and in case of any specific violence against her person she can give a complaint to the police concerned and in case the police do not take any action she can approach the appropriate Court. 3. The petitions raised certain other questions with regard to running of working women’s hostel. Smt. A. Jayanthi, Advocate, was appointed as Commissioner by this Court to visit the hostels and the Commissioner submitted her report by visiting only few hostels, as it was impossible for her to visit all the hostels within a short period, as there appears to be hundreds of such hostels existing in Hyderabad city the addresses of all the hostels are not even known. Within the jurisdiction of Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone itself, there are as many as 130 such hostels. Most of them are in Vengalrao Nagar, Sanjeevreddy Nagar and few others are located in other areas of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone, Hyderabad. Number of such hostels in other areas of the city may not be substantial as revealed from the statistics furnished by other police. The area of North Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police seems to be containing 36 such hostels and Abids Police Station area seems to be containing 5 such hostels. The details with regard to number of hostels in other areas are not available and there might be more such hostels being run without knowledge to the police concerned. 4. The material on record filed by the Government shows that there are no rules governing private hostels for working women/students. G.O. Ms. No.1 of Women’s Development & Child Welfare Department dated 22-1-1996 and G.O. Ms. No.16 dated 4-3-1997 are laying down certain rules for working women’s hostels, but those are meant only for the hostels run by the Government. With appropriate changes the above Rules can be made applicable to the hostels run by the private individuals also. The changes can be not imposing any restrictions on the charges to be collected from the inmates, as, rented accommodation would be taken by the organizers, charges are likely to be higher than the hostels run by the Government and other charges would depend on the facilities provided in a particular hostel and the inmates can choose the standard of hostel depending on their financial capacity. As obviously there is high competition in the field, there is no possibility of any particular hostel charging unreasonably higher charges as in such event candidates would choose hostels with lesser charges with comparable facilities. There can be guidelines like location of the hostels nearer to bus stops, metro railway stations and for providing security arrangements, locating the same in independent buildings to avoid inconvenience to other inmates of the same building, obtaining compulsory licence or having registration for running the hostels, maintaining proper registers and maintaining permanent addresses of the inmates which shall be supported by authentic material etc. Compulsory provision of some women caretaker and also provision for immediate medical facilities like having a tie up with nearby hospital can be imposed. 5. For preparing guidelines, participation by the Government Departments concerned, as well as Women’s Organisations and A.P. Women’s Commission might be useful. Participation by Padmavathi Mahila University and some representatives of the organizers of ladies hostels would be appropriate. Hence, we recommend the Government to frame guidelines for running working women’s hostels in the light of the observations made above. We may also observe that there appears to be not many instances of any untoward incidents taking place in ladies hostels, as such, there might not be any necessity for framing strict Rules and Regulations that may be become counter productive resulting in harassment to the organizers as well as the inmates of the hostels. With the above observations, the Writ Petitions are disposed of. ________________________ A. GOPAL REDDY, J March 28, 2008. ________________________ P. SWAROOP REDDY, J PV ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1 The Station House Officer, S.R. Nagar Police Station, Hyderabad. 2 The District Collector, Hyderabad District at Hyderabad. 3 The Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City, Basheerabagh, Hyderabad. 4 The Director General of Police, Government of A.P., Saifabad, Hyderabad. 5 The Government of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by its Prl. Secretary, Women Development and Child Welfare and Disabled Welfare Department, Secretariat, Hyderabad. 6 The Government of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by its Prl. Secretary, Home Department, Secretariat, at Hyderabad. 7. Two CCs to G.P. for Home. 8. Two CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{RLD} Form-NIC-OGS/WP{KURR}