Telangana High Court Sentences District Collector To Three Months; Terms His Actions As Wilful Disobedience And Guilty Of Contempt.
(Judicial Quest News Network)
In a Contempt of Court case the Telangana High Court has recently held a District Collector and two others guilty of contempt and wilful disobedience of Court’s order.
A Single Bench of Justice MS Ramachandra Rao sentenced themto undergo a simple imprisonment for three months and to pay fine of Rs.2,000/- they have also been directed to pay costs of Rs.10,000/- to each of the petitioners.
Petitioners are farmers of agricultural lands in Anantagiri village, Illanthakunta Mandal, Rajanna Sircilla District of erstwhile Karimnagar District. Their lands along with those of others were acquired for construction of Anantagiri Reservoir under Kaleswaram Project Package No.10 under two preliminary notifications issued under Section 11(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (Act 30 of 2013). The first of such notifications was published in the Telangana Gazette No.01, dt.08.05.2016, for Acs.69.22 ½ gts. and the second such notification was published in proceeding No.G/555/2017 dt.01.02.2017 for Acs.257.37 gts.
Earlier in 2018 the petitioners had moved to Telangana High Court with regards to the land acquisition case and the Court had issued orders which were not carried out by the Collector and two other revenue officers.
In its order, the Single bench also rejected a contention raised by the District Collector that he was not holding office in October,2018 and thus, he had no responsibility to ensure obedience to the orders passed by the Court at the time.
I agree with the said submission of the petitioners because petitioner was admittedly the District Collector of the said District in October,2019 when the agricultural lands of petitioners were submerged (this is discussed below in detail) and it was his duty to prevent it’s violation since the Office of District Collector, Rajanna Sircilla District was a party in the Writ Petition ( 5th respondent in the WP) and to the said order dt.12.10.2018 and it binds him as well even if he joined later in the said Post.
The 1st respondent then contended that he had perused the file record in the Collectorate and he observed that no part of petitioners’ lands was handed over to any agency for irrigation work after 12.10.2018.
The bench has further noted that the Respondents were unable to show any document showing that rehabilitation and resettlement awards under Section 31 of the Right to Fair Compensation, Rehabilitation and resettlement Act, 2031 was paid to the Petitioners in lieu of acquisition of their agricultural lands.
The direction was made to the District Collector, Joint Collector and Administrator (Rehabilitation and Resettlement) and Land Acquisition Officer – cum-Revenue Divisional Officer of the Ranjana Sircilla District in the State.
The court delivered in its order that To a specific question put by me to the Special Government Pleader, Sri A. Sanjeev Kumar, attached to the Office of the Additional Advocate-General to show to me a single award under Section 31 of the Act r/w Schedule II of the Act towards Resettlement and Rehabilitation for acquisition of agricultural lands of the petitioners under the notifications mentioned by the petitioners above, he was not able to point out to a single document in any of the Annexures filed along with the counter-affidavits filed by the respondents to show that such awards were passed and such compensation was paid.
The Court has also directed that an adverse entry shall be recorded in the service records of respondents as regards their wilful disobedience of the Court’s orders.
[Read Order]
