In an important development for the Telangana bureaucracy, the High Court has sentenced Ranga Reddy District Collector C Narayana Reddy (IAS:2015:TG) to six months’ imprisonment in a contempt case. Justice K. Lakshman held the IAS officer guilty of wilful disobedience of the HC order. The court also imposed a fine of ₹2,000 on him.
However, the sentence was suspended for four weeks to give him an opportunity to go for an appeal against this order.
The contempt petitions had been filed by a woman, P Shivaleela, and her husband, P Venkateshwarlu, arguing that the IAS officer wilfully disobeyed a HC order while disposing of their writ petition. The petitioners were seeking a direction to issue a No Objection Certificate for their plots at Turkayamjal in Ranga Reddy district. Their plot was listed as prohibitory property.
The HC last year passed an order asking the District Collector to consider the couple’s representation for deleting their plots from the list of prohibitory properties. The court had asked the Collector to pass a reasoned order and communicate the same to them within 60 days.
But the IAS officer did not pass any order in the stipulated time as per the HC verdict, nor did he appeal to the HC. This amounted to wilful disobedience.
Get Latest Updates