HC sets aside punishment to three officials in contempt case

Officials, however, directed to deposit in court the fine amounts and costs imposed on them by single judge order

Allowing the contempt appeal petitions filed by three officers, Telangana High Court on Thursday set aside the punishment awarded to them for disobeying a single judge order in a writ petition pertaining to acquisition of land for Mallannasagar reservoir of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project. The HC, however, directed the officials — Collectors of Siddipet and Rajanna Sircilla districts P. Venkatrami Reddy and D. Krishna Bhaskar, respectively and Siddipet Revenue Divisional Officer Jayachandra Reddy — to deposit in the court the fine amounts and costs imposed on them. The orders were passed by a bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy after hearing contentions of Advocate-General B.S. Prasad appearing for them. In a judgement pronounced on this February 21 in ‘contempt of court’ petition, a single judge awarded simple imprisonment of three months and four months to Siddipet Collector and RDO respectively. The two officials were also imposed fine amounts of ₹ 2,000 each. The Collector and the RDO were also instructed to pay ₹ 25,000 and ₹ 50,000 towards costs to the petitioners. Rajanna Sircilla Collector was imposed a fine of ₹ 2,000.