Shivangi Prakash –
Published on: September 3, 2021, at 09:36 IST
The Andhra Pradesh High Court sentenced four working IAS officers and one retired IAS officer to various prison terms on Thursday, finding them guilty of contempt for “willful defiance” of a Court order issued on February 10, 2017.
The case against three additional IAS officers, including Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, was dropped when the charge against them was dismissed.
Principal Finance Secretary Shamsher Singh Rawat, Chief Minister’s Additional Secretary Revu Mutyala Raju, SPS Nellore district Collector K V N Chakradhara Babu, and former Collector M V Seshagiri Babu are among the guilty IAS officers.
Mutyala Raju had previously held the position of Collector for the SPS Nellore district.
Manmohan Singh, a retired IAS official who was the then-Principal Secretary (Revenue) in 2017, was also found guilty in the case.
On a contempt petition filed by agriculturist Tallapaka Savitramma of SPS Nellore district, Justice Battu Devanand issued the order.
Rawat and Singh have been condemned to one month in prison, while others have received two-week sentences.
In addition, each of them has been fined Rs 1,000.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, C Vani Reddy, Justice Devanand suspended the sentence for a month to allow the guilty to file an appeal.
While hearing the contempt case in June, Justice Devanand noted that, based on the records, the revenue divisional officer submitted bills to the accounts office on July 6, 2020, but they were not cleared until March 30, 2021.
“In the opinion of this Court, nearly eight months delay occurred in the office of the Principal Accounts Officer in clearing the bills and making payment of compensation to the petitioner,” the Judge noted.
The Court heard the respondents’ arguments in August and reserved his decision.
The decision was made on Thursday.
Also Read: What Constitutes a Contempt of Court?