HC fines 2 collectors for contempt

■ DESPITE COURT directions to take objections from petitioners, the authorities undertook an agreement from land owners directly for voluntary acquisition for the construction of Mallanna Sagar reservoir. ■ THE JUDGE also sentenced a two-month jail on Ja

The Telangana High Court has punished two district collectors and one revenue divisional officer (RDO) for “wilful disobedience of court orders” in acquiring some extent of land in Vemula ghat village of Siddipet district during the construction of the Mallanna Sagar reservoir.

While coming to conclusion that the two IAS officer and RDO had not paid heed to court directions, Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao imposed a fine of `2,000 on P. Venkatrami Reddy, district collector, Siddipet, and Krishna Bhaskar, presently working as collector of Sircilla district. The fine has to be paid by them within four weeks, and in case of a default, they would have to undergo imprisonment for one month.

The judge also sentenced a two months imprisonment and fine of `2,000 on Jayachandra Reddy, RDO cum special deputy collector for Kaleshwaram project unit-3.

The sentence of imprisonment was suspended for four weeks to enable the respondent officials to make an appeal before the court.

Despite court directions to take objections from petitioners without supplying the Detailed Project Report to land owners, before declaring an award for acquisition of land, the authorities undertook an agreement from land owners directly for voluntary acquisition. The authorities also issued a declaration of land acquisition.

Challenging this action of wilful disobedience of court orders by the authorities, a contempt case was filed before the High Court. After considering facts, the judge directed all three officials to pay costs of Rs 2,000 to each of the petitioners, apart from imposing fine and a possible imprisonment in case of a default.