Soni Satti
The Telangana High Court urges the state officials at all levels to be careful and prompt in implementing the court orders.
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy was hearing numerous contempt appeals brought by contemnor officials who had been found guilty of contempt and sentenced to prison.
The court noted that contempt and contempt petition cases are being filed in greater numbers, prompting the high court to appoint two judges to handle these cases exclusively.
The bench stated, “If the state and its machinery show scant regard to the court’s orders, the court will treat them with equal distinct.” If the officials have the confidence that they can get away from the contempt case by filing an appeal, then this court will shake and stir their confidence.”
The court hinted that “from now on, any contempt case against any officer will be pointed out from the high court documents, and if any officer is found to be in contempt of court, it will be taken seriously.”
In the contempt appeals filed by the then-additional collector Veera Reddy, Sangareddy, the RDO, and the tehsildar, Chief Justice Kohli directed the high court’s Registry to verify, collect, and collate information from court records.
In order to determine how many contempt proceedings the name of the then-additional collector, Sangareddy, appeared in, and how many orders were sent. The court ordered the registrar to provide that information by June 16.
When the court inquired about previous contempt cases against Veera Reddy and other officials, no response was given. As a result, the court ordered the registrar to compile records on these authorities.