Two convicted bureaucrats were given an opportunity by the Telangana high court to do some voluntary service to a needy section of the society in lieu of the punishment awarded to them.
The bench comprising of chief justice Hima Kohli and justice B Vijaysen Reddy gave this chance to IAS officer Prashant Jeevan Patil (IAS:2011:TG) and his junior colleague at Warangal civil supplies wing P Sandhya Rani. The duo have been convicted in a contempt case filed by a rice mill owner of Parvathagiri mandal in Warangal district.
A penalty of Rs 2,000 on each of the two convicted officers were imposed by the court and ordered them to undergo a jail term of six weeks in case they fail to pay the penalty. The court earlier ordered them to restore paddy supply to the mill owner for custom milling and supply the same later to the civil supplies corporation.
Following some discrepancies found at the mill, the civil supplies officials booked a case against the miller. They also punished him by seizing half of the stock at the mill. They even stopped paddy supply to the mill and blacklisted it as well. The aggrieved miller approached the court and questioned the disproportionately high punishment without even proving the case against him. He also told the court that several mills in the district too were facing similar cases, but none of them were blacklisted.
The state and the officials preferred an appeal over this and sought quashing of this conviction order. The bench agreed to do so, provided they do some social service. State’s special counsel A Sanjeev Kumar readily agreed to this proposal and assured the court that they would serve some needy sections, like orphaned children or poor children in the society. The next hearing is on April 7.
