Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday sentenced Mr K. Siva Kumar Naidu, an IAS officer and former joint collector of Mahabubnagar district for 30 days of simple imprisonment in a contempt of court case. Justice P. Naveen Rao, while allowing the contempt case by A.B. Buchaiah, a retired government servant, found that the joint collector wilfully disobeyed the court order and sentenced the petitioner for the civil imprisonment despite knowing of the fact that the High Court had granted an interim order in favour of the petitioner.
The judge directed the joint collector to pay Rs 2,000 fine and the state government to pay Rs 50, 000 as compensation to the petitioner and then recover the said amount from the official. The judge suspended the sentence for three weeks to allow the officer to make an appeal against the order. The petitioner had approached the High Court, challenging an order passed by the joint collector staying the construction of a Kalyana Mandapam on his land.
The HC stayed the order of the joint collector in August 2017. When the petitioner restarted the construction in September 2017 the joint collector ordered the circle inspector of Mahab-ubnagar to imprison the petitioner for two months and 29 days for violating his order. He told the court that the officer, despite knowing that the High Court had stayed his order, deliberately passed the order for the imprisonment of the petitioner.
