Contempt case: Telangana high court has 2 officials arrested, frees on personal bonds
M Sagar Kumar | TNN | Feb 16, 2019, 07:49 IST
(Representative image)HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Friday directed the judicial registrar to take into custody state assembly secretary V Narasimhacharyulu and law secretary V Niranjan Rao after they appeared in a contempt case. Justice B Siva Sankara Rao also said that if high authorities such as the Assembly Speaker and DGP don’t accord respect to HC orders, he would not hesitate to rope in the Union home ministry to execute court directives.
The court then directed the judicial registrar to take personal bonds of Rs 5,000 each from the two state bureaucrats before letting them go. The officers gave an undertaking that they would appear before the court on the next hearing on March 8.
Justice Rao was dealing with a contempt case filed by former Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar who had filed a plea against the way they were kept out of the previous Assembly from March 2018 till the House was dissolved. They were suspended from the House and later expelled. Though the court set aside the expulsion, the authorities did not implement the order.
Following a contempt case, the court had summoned the assembly and law secretaries who failed to turn up during hearings. The court had then issued bailable warrants against them with a direction to Hyderabad police commissioner to produce them in court. “It is my duty to uphold the majesty of the court,” the judge said. The petitioners’ counsel Jandhayala Ravi Shankar told reporters later that this was nothing but effecting the arrest of the two officers and setting them free on bail bonds.
The judge had earlier issued contempt notices to then Assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary, the DGP and two SPs also in the case. Justice Rao on Friday took note of the fact that none of them have responded till date and issued fresh notices to all of them. They too have to now appear before the court on Mar 8.
HC finds fault with addl AG’s stand
The high court found fault with the stand of the state additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao, who had described the ongoing court proceedings as ‘nonsense’ in the last hearing. Rao was of the view that as a division bench had closed the writ appeal filed by the state after the previous House had ended, there was no point in continuing with the contempt case. But Justice Rao made it clear he would close the case only after all contemnors appeared before the HC. “There has been no remorse shown by the state counsel for his conduct so far,” the judge said.
The court then directed the judicial registrar to take personal bonds of Rs 5,000 each from the two state bureaucrats before letting them go. The officers gave an undertaking that they would appear before the court on the next hearing on March 8.
Justice Rao was dealing with a contempt case filed by former Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar who had filed a plea against the way they were kept out of the previous Assembly from March 2018 till the House was dissolved. They were suspended from the House and later expelled. Though the court set aside the expulsion, the authorities did not implement the order.
Following a contempt case, the court had summoned the assembly and law secretaries who failed to turn up during hearings. The court had then issued bailable warrants against them with a direction to Hyderabad police commissioner to produce them in court. “It is my duty to uphold the majesty of the court,” the judge said. The petitioners’ counsel Jandhayala Ravi Shankar told reporters later that this was nothing but effecting the arrest of the two officers and setting them free on bail bonds.
The judge had earlier issued contempt notices to then Assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary, the DGP and two SPs also in the case. Justice Rao on Friday took note of the fact that none of them have responded till date and issued fresh notices to all of them. They too have to now appear before the court on Mar 8.
HC finds fault with addl AG’s stand
The high court found fault with the stand of the state additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao, who had described the ongoing court proceedings as ‘nonsense’ in the last hearing. Rao was of the view that as a division bench had closed the writ appeal filed by the state after the previous House had ended, there was no point in continuing with the contempt case. But Justice Rao made it clear he would close the case only after all contemnors appeared before the HC. “There has been no remorse shown by the state counsel for his conduct so far,” the judge said.
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