AP High Court Sentences IAS officers To Jail in 2018 Contempt Case

AMARAVATI:  The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday sentenced four g IAS officers and one retired to varying terms of imprisonment holding them guilty of contempt for "wilful disobedience" of the court order of February 10, 2017.

The convicted IAS officers include Principal Finance Secretary Shamsher Singh Rawat, Additional Secretary Revu Mutyala Raju, SPS Nellore district Collector KVN Chakradhara Babu, and former Collector M V Seshagiri Babu.

Rawat and Singh have been sentenced to one-month imprisonment while others have been sentenced to two weeks imprisonment.

A fine of Rs 1,000 has also been imposed on each of them.

Justice Devanand, however, ordered the suspension of the sentence for a month to enable the convicted to go for an appeal.

Justice Battu Devanand pronounced the order on a 2018 contempt petition filed by one Tallapaka Savitramma of SPS Nellore district.

Savitramma had filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2017 stating that her  3-acre land was taken away by the revenue authorities and allotted to the National Institute of Mental Health without any notice or payment of compensation.

In December 2016, the revenue authorities promised to pay compensation to her.She filed a petition in the high court in February 2017 which ruled in her favor and directed the revenue authorities concerned to pay compensation to her within three months.

In 2018, Savitramma filed a contempt case in the High Court after the revenue authorities failed to implement the court's order.

In June this year, Justice Devanand, while hearing the contempt case, observed that the revenue divisional officer had submitted bills to the accounts office on July 6, 2020, but they were not cleared till March 30, 2021, which was nearly an eight months gap. In August, the judge heard the arguments of the respondents and the final verdict was delivered on Thursday.