HC sets aside punishment to six top officials in contempt case

Petition filed highly belated by respondents, notes court

Telangana High Court on Monday quashed and set aside a single judge order awarding six-month simple imprisonment to six top officials and imposing ₹2,000 fine on each of them in a contempt of court petition. Allowing the appeal petitions against single judge order, a bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy said the contempt petition was barred by limitation. The bench, however, gave liberty to the respondents to seek appropriate legal recourse if they were aggrieved by the orders issued in the year 2010. The six top officials, including two IAS officers and two IFS officers, filed the appeal petitions challenging the single judge order passed in the contempt plea. The division bench headed by the CJ observed: “we are of the opinion that the contempt petition having been filed highly belated by the respondents, was not maintainable in the light of the limitation prescribed under Section 20 of the Contempt of Courts Act”.