HC orders imprisonment of two Collectors, RDO

Directed to pay costs of ₹10,000 to petitioners

The High Court has sentenced Sircilla Collector D. Krishna Bhaskar, the then Joint Collector (now Collector of Wanaparthy) Yashmin Basha and Land Acquisition Officer/ Revenue Divisional Officer N. Srinivas Rao to undergo a simple imprisonment of three months and pay a fine of ₹2,000 in a contempt case. They shall also pay costs of ₹ 10,000 to each of the petitioners within four weeks. The sentence of imprisonment imposed on the respondents is suspended for six weeks. An adverse entry shall be recorded in the service records of the respondents as regards their wilful disobedience of the orders dated 12.10.2018 passed by this court in Writ Petition number 37623 of 2018, read the order.

The order issued by Justice M.S. Ramachandar Rao was dated February 25, 2021.

As many as 15 petitioners from the Anantagiri village in Illantakunta mandal of Rajanna Sircilla district approached the High Court alleging that their lands were inundated by Anantagiri reservoir despite interim orders issued by the High Court and this was nothing but contempt of court. All of them demanded implementation of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act – 2013 (LA Act – 2013). They alleged that the authorities had not followed the mandatory procedures.

In 2018 , the petitioners urged the court to restrain the respondents from taking possession of their agriculture lands mentioned in the declaration issued on January 1, 2017 and May 16, 2017 from taking up any construction work. They alleged that their lands got submerged as a result of the works from upstream in October 2019.

“I hold that petitioners were dispossessed from their lands in October 2019 itself and their lands were submerged as alleged in the contempt case and all the respondents have wilfully disobeyed the order dated 12.10.2018 in Interim Appeal (IA) Number of 1 of 2018 in Writ Petition Number 37623 of 2018,” observed the Judge.

“Our lands were forcibly acquired and inundated in the Antagiri reservoir in 2019 despite our cases pending with the High Court. So far we were not paid compensation for our lands or Rehabilitation and Resettlement. Hence, we approached the High Court again,” Kolanupaka Narayana Reddy, one of the oustees from Anantagiri told

The Hindu .