The bench of acting Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar noted that according to newspaper reports, neither the police nor the locals came to the woman's rescue.
"No civilised society can tolerate the incident of this nature, and if we go by the news item, it is unfortunate to note that neither the police nor the locals came to the rescue of the victims. Therefore, we take up this news item as suo- motu public interest litigation," the court said.
HC also directed the AP State Legal Services Authority to get in touch with District Judge of Guntur and request him to provide para-legal volunteers to the victim's family for legal aid.
According to newspaper reports, 45-year-old B Kanthasuneela died while protecting her daughter from a group of drunken youths in Tenali town on the night of April 8. The youths abused the woman and her daughter and pushed her under the wheels of a lorry.