Telangana HC tells officials to do charity work as punishment

A panel of the Chief Justice and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy were hearing a plethora of contempt cases

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court voiced displeasure at the manner in which court orders were being disobeyed by the Executive.

“We may have to set up a division bench for the sole purpose of hearing contempt cases,” Chief Justice Hima Kohli said. A panel of the Chief Justice and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy were hearing a plethora of contempt cases.

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The contempt appeal was preferred by Prashanth J Patil, Collector of Nalgonda district. The contemnor had blacklisted a rice mill owner during the pendency of his writ petition. In the previous hearing, the Chief Justice had directed the contemnor to submit an affidavit of any charitable activity that he intends to take up to pardon his action. The contemnor stated that he intends to enrol 600 girls into schools as there is a sex ratio problem in the district.

The Chief Justice remarked that such action falls within the purview of a Collector’s public function and cannot be considered an appropriate apology. The panel directed the contemnor to spend two hours every week in an orphanage in the district for the next six months. The same has to be certified by the Principal District Judge, Nalgonda, and at the end of six months, if the direction is complied with, the contempt case would stand dismissed.

In a connected contempt appeal preferred by B Sandhya Rani, District Supply Officer of Warangal, the panel directed the contemnor to sponsor a luncheon on two separate occasions — Ugadi and Ram Navami — in an orphanage. The panel posted the two cases on October 29 to ensure compliance with the order.

Lawyer couple murder

The panel in the case concerning the murder of the lawyer couple, Gattu Vamana Rao and his wife Nagamani, took note of the third status report filed by the Advocate General. The court had earlier taken suo moto cognisance of the incident and has been monitoring the investigation.

The Advocate General informed that three more people had been arrested in connection with the case and their confessions had been recorded. He further stated that 25 eyewitnesses had issued statements before the District Magistrate. A Test Identification Parade of the arrested individuals is scheduled on April 17. Also, their mobile phones have been sent to FSL Hyderabad for forensic analysis, and the same would take four weeks. The counsel for the victim’s father had sought a copy of the report, which the panel refused.

The Chief Justice stated that the investigation is an affair between the court and the state and the same is progressing to the satisfaction of the court. The panel posted the case to April 23 and directed the Advocate General to file a status report prior to the hearing.

Land case

A two-judge panel comprising Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice T Vinod Kumar directed the revenue authorities to remove two properties in Osmansagar and Kollur village in Ramathandrapuram village from the list of properties prohibited from being registered in favour of private parties. The panel directed the Sub Registrar to register the sale deed in favour of the BHEL Model Mutually Aided Cooperative House Building Society in a case where the land owned by the society was placed on the prohibited list under the Registration Act. In addition, it imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 payable to the petitioner by the respondent.

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