Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday asked the TS Chief Secretary why the state government was not initiating disciplinary proceedings against IAS officers Naveen Mittal and Durga Das and revenue officials despite court orders to do so.
The officers had provided a no-objection certificate to some persons who allegedly submitted fabricated documents and violated the rules of evacuee property to acquire an acre of land in Ward 21 in Nanalnagar, Gudimalkapur, in the city.
The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Sham-eem Akther was dealing with the appeal petition of Ms Shanti Agarwal urging the court to order a CBI probe and take action against the officials for their unethical practices.
The bench directed the state government to submit a report by the first week of August detailing what it had done to follow the judicial order issued in 2017 directing it to take action against the public servants involved in issuing the NoC.
Ms Agarwal had filed a petition before the then AP High Court in 2011 against Mr Mittal, former collector of Hyderabad, and other revenue authorities including the joint collector and tahasildar, who were part of the NoC committee.
The petitioner alleged that the committee headed by Mr Mittal had issued the NoC to third parties in 2009 which would allow them to acquire her land at Nanalnagar, though she had all the documents to prove she held the title of the land. An NOC was required because the land was listed as evacuee property.
When the petitioner came to know in 2011 that the NoC had been given, she approached the court. In 2017, a single judge set aside the orders of the NoC committee and found fault with the officials.
The court directed the government to start departmental proceedings against officers and fined them Rs 25,000It also directed that criminal proceedings be started against the persons who submitted the fabricated documents before the NoC committee.
Ms Agarwal, who is aged 79, filed an appeal against the order of the single judge and has sought a CBI inquiry and criminal action against the errant public servants.
On Monday, the Acting Chief Justice bench repeatedly asked Advocate General B.S. Prasad why the state government had not initiated departmental proceedings against the then collector.
On the request of the AG, the bench adjourned the case for six weeks and directed the state government to submit the report regarding the action initiated against the respondents.
