Telanaga high court punishes three officials for contempt of court

Hyderabad: Justice MS Ramachandra Rao of Telangana High Court sentenced three officials for three-months imprisonment and imposed a fine of `2,000 each on July 5 for violating the court's order.

 A Siddipet revenue divisional officer, a Thogutta Mandal tahsildar and a superintendent engineer of Irrigation Department were sentenced for intentionally violating the court’s order in the case related to land acquisition proceedings under Mallanna Sagar reservoir, which was part of the Kaleshwaram project.

The judge while dealing with a petition filed by J Rajavva and 13 others from Vemulaghat village in Thogutta Mandal of Siddipet district, had directed, the authorities concerned to acquire subject lands only after providing the required material in Telugu language to the petitioners and resolving the objections raised by them on On July 25 last year. The officials failed to implement the court order and that prompted the petitioners to file another case, seeking action against the officials for willful disobedience of the court’s order.

Justice Ramachandra Rao after hearing the submissions of petitioners’ counsel Ch Ravi Kumar and examining the details provided to the court by petitioners, found that Siddipet RDO Jayachandra Reddy, tahsildar L Veer Singh and superintendent engineer T Venu of Irrigation Department, guilty of contempt.

The judge pointed out that the RDO and MRO have given wrong information to the court on the issue and that the superintendent engineer had proceeded with the construction works on the subjected lands despite the court’s order. However, the judge suspended the above order for six weeks to enable the contemnors to file an appeal against the sentence imposed against them.