Litigation, contempt cases bog Andhra Pradesh government

Amaravati: The amount of paperwork related to contempt cases and new petitions being filed has meant that government officials in Andhra Pradesh are burdened and as a result the administration is bogged down.

On one hand, the Andhra government is fighting a mind-boggling 1.94 lakh cases in the state High Court and the Supreme Court and on the other, at least 450 fresh cases are adding up on a daily basis.

"It is at least 40,000 pages of paperwork, only related to the new (writ) petitions that are being filed everyday. That speaks of the enormity of the task on our hands," a top bureaucrat remarked.

The cost of the litigation was "simply incalculable," he averred.

And, government officials, including some top bureaucrats, are facing about 8,000 contempt proceedings for failing to implement court orders from time to time.

"There is at least a 30 per cent increase in the number of cases being filed against the (Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy) government because of the faulty policies it is pursuing,” former Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas pointed out.

The litigation encompasses everything connected broadly with the administration and also public policy issues, the aggrieved ranging from a pensioner (retired government staffer) to any ordinary citizen espousing a public cause.

"There is an ongoing case in my department that was filed 13 years before I was born," an IAS officer, now in his 40s, said.

When the state Vigilance Commissioner Veena Ish conducted a videoconference the other day with officials of different departments, she was amazed to find that several cases, particularly those related to corruption charges, lay undisposed for more than two decades.

There was also a stunning revelation. At least four graft cases "ended" in conviction long ago but were still listed as "pending."

When the baffled department head quizzed his staff about this, he was told that the relevant files were "lost" because of which the cases were still shown as "pending!"

"There is no proper mechanism in place to regularly monitor the cases and initiate follow-up action. That is also leading to contempt proceedings in many cases," a top bureaucrat told PTI.

The High Court recently issued a non-bailable warrant against a retired IAS officer for not implementing the court orders when she headed a particular department a couple of years ago.

The retired officer was dismayed as the court orders were duly complied with, long ago.

"The GP (government pleader) concerned failed to submit a compliance report to the court, which led to the issue of the NBW. The episode exemplifies the sorry state of affairs in the government," the top bureaucrat noted.

On August 23, Justice Battu Devanand found fault with officials of various departments for not filing counter affidavits in a writ petition filed by a contractor against non-payment of bills for certain civil works executed, despite serving of notices on October 21, 2020.

An IAS and an IFS officer were last month "sentenced to imprisonment till rising of the Court" and also made to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 each in a contempt case after their initial punishment of "nine days simple imprisonment" was modified.

"Many senior IAS officers are facing serious contempt charges these days, mainly over non-payment of NREGS-related bills and other money issues. The fault lies elsewhere but the bureaucrats are the ones facing the music," another top bureaucrat observed.

A recent internal note prepared by the Finance Department listed at least 143 contempt of court cases pending, in most of which the required counter affidavits were not even filed.

And in many of those cases, 'No' is written in the column "whether order in the WP is complied with or not."

"The Finance Department is not alone in this. The tale is the same in the entire administration. The (court) calling comes in turns," the IAS officer added.

Some senior IAS officers have become regular attendees in the High Court, making personal appearance in either the writ petitions or the contempt proceedings.

"It's like a daily soap for us, a never-ending saga," the officer said.