The Andhra Pradesh High Court asked the state government on Tuesday its reasons for not invoking the National Security Act against political parties responsible for calling frequent bandhs and strikes, which were causing tremendous hardships to the public in general and students in particular.

The court suspended the operation of a Government Order which had kept GO 177 (that provides for stringent action against striking employees) in abeyance. This means, GO 177 becomes operational with immediate effect. A division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru and Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar was dealing with six separate petitions challenging the inaction of the government in preventing the frequent agitations and for paying salaries to employees of the Telangana region who had participated in the non-cooperation movement. The Bench was also dealing with petitions challenging the state's inaction in recovering damages caused to public properties during bandhs and agitations from the political parties.

On April 13, the government had issued GO 177 to initiate action on employees who had taken part in the pen-down strike and the non-cooperation movement in February this year. However, five days later, it had issued another GO keeping the earlier one in abeyance following protests from Telangana agitators. The Bench granted five weeks to the state to respond on the issues and also to file counter arguments regarding not taking action against the employees who participated in the non–cooperation motion.