President Prathibha Patil sought a detailed briefing from the government on the file it sent on union cabinet committee on political affairs (CCPA) on  Tuesday that gave a go-ahead for the deletion of Clause  ‘F’ of Para 14 of the presidential order that makes  Hyderabad a “free zone” for employment.

The president's decision comes soon after the Rayalseema-Andhra leaders sought rejection of the CCPA resolution. Since there is a conflict she needed a briefing, Rashtrapati Bhavan sources said.

The option to send back the file to the cabinet or refering the matter to the supreme court for clarity.

The government has deputed union home minister P Chidambaram is likely to be deputed to brief Patil on the points of the CCPA resolution.

The deletion of the clause had become a pivotal issue for the Telangana agitators who wanted the police recruitment examinations to be deferred till the clause was deleted from the presidential order.

According to the Clause 14(F), Hyderabad was to be a  “free zone”  a provision which made candidates from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions eligible to be recruited for police jobs in Hyderabad. The Telangana parties have been demanding the deletion of the clause so that only candidates from Zone VI — comprising  Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Medak and Nalgonda — are eligible for recruitment.

The CCPA met on July 4 and had  decided to request the chief minister, Kiran Kumar Reddy, to get a fresh resolution passed in the state assembly seeking deletion of  the clause. But Reddy informed them that since the house had already passed  a resolution last year, there was no need to pass a fresh one.