The Telangana High Court on Wednesday instructed two IAS officers, a legislator and two revenue officials to appear before it personally in a contempt of court petition.
Justice Challa Kodanda Ram gave the order after two persons approached the HC over alleged allotment of their land for construction of the office of ruling TRS party in Kamareddy town. As per the judge’s order, Principal Secretary of Revenue Somesh Kumar, Kamareddy district collector Satyanarayana, Kamareddy MLA and district TRS party president Gampa Goverdhan were directed to appear before the judge at the next hearing.
Kamareddy Revenue Divisional Officer K. Rajender Kumar and Mandal Revenue Officer G. Rajender Kumar were also told to appear before the court. The matter was posted for hearing after four weeks. The contempt petition was filed by N. Pratap Reddy and B. Prabhakar alleging that the revenue officials allotted their 1.2-acre land located at Paiki Vadloor village of Kamareddy for construction of TRS party office.
After hearing their plea, the judge on September 9 last passed an order instructing the revenue authorities not to interfere with the petitioners’ possession of the land. However, the petitioners charged that the revenue authorities did not pay heed to the HC order and went ahead with the party office construction work . Eventually, they filed a contempt of court petition, accusing the revenue authorities and the MLA of wilfully disobeying the HC direction.
A government counsel appeared during presentation of the arguments on Wednesday. The judge declined the counsel’s request to pass over the matter and issued Form-I notice to the officials and the legislator directing them to personally appear before the court.
