Mines director warned of contempt case

HC pulls up mines official for not issuing notice to DK Aruna’s kin

The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday pulled up an official of Telangana mining department for his failure to implement a court order granting stay on the alleged illegal mining in the land leased out to D.K. Snigdha Reddy, the daughter of former minister and Congress MLA D.K. Aruna, at Mannapur village of Tharrur mandal in Mahabubnagar district.

While hearing a PIL filed by B. Krishna Mohan Reddy, a former ZPTC member of Gadwal town, the division bench, comprising Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice A Ramalingeswara Rao, had directed the director of Telangana mines and geology department to take appropriate action against her and to issue a showcause notice to her informing that the lease would also be cancelled forthwith for carrying out quarrying operations outside the area allotted to her.

The petitioner had alleged that the lease was issued for one hectare of land, but the quarrying operations were being carried in 20 hectares in the village.

When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the bench asked the government counsel whether the department has issued the notice to Snigdha Reddy for cancellation of lease as per the undertaking given by the additional advocate general of Telangana earlier.

When the response was negative, the bench expressed its anger at the mines director, who was present in the court, for his failure to obey the court’s order. “Your officials are helping the respondents. The officer should know the difference between the orders passed by the government and the court. The mines director also seems to helping the respondents.”

At one stage, the bench warned of issuing contempt notice to the mines director. The counsel told the bench that the government has granted stay on a revision petition filed by the department with regard to imposition of `32 crores penalty on the respondent. Steps were also taken for cancellation of lease granted to the respondent.

The bench directed the director to file an affidavit explaining the reasons for not implementing the order and posted the matter for hearing on April 29.