HC upholds lower court order of status quo on beef festival

The Hyderabad High Court today directed the organisers of the proposed 'beef festival' as well as the Osmania University management to maintain "status quo", staying the holding of the festival.
A bench of acting Chief Justice D B Bhosle and Justice S V Bhatt passed the order in response to a writ petition filed by K Raju complaining that the festival, proposed to be held tomorrow, may trigger widespread violence on the University campus.
Such violence had been witnessed when beef festivals were organised in 2011, 2012 and 2014, said the petitioner.
The lawyer of the Osmania University informed the HC that it had already written to the Hyderabad Police Commissioner and the local police about likely consequences of beef festival.

Further, a civil court had already ordered a status quo, the lawyer said.
The bench said that in view of the order of the civil court, no festival of this nature could be performed on the campus.
A student group had declared that it would hold a beef festival in the varsity campus tomorrow, coinciding with the World Human Rights Day, while another group announced the plan to organise a "pork festival" on the same day, which raised possibility of a confrontation.
The city civil court had passed the status quo order two days back, which amounts to staying the conduct of festivals, on a petition filed by an advocate.