Telangana HC jails Sircilla collector, 2 officials for contempt of court

Hyderabad: Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday sentenced Rajanna Sircilla district collector D. Krishna Bhaskar, joint collector Yasmin Basha and land acquisition officer N. Srinivasa Rao, the revenue divisional officer, to three months simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 for disobeying court orders.

The order was passed on a contempt case that was filed by 11 landowners from Anantagiri village of Sircilla district, whose land was submerged by a reservoir of the Kaleshwaram project.

Earlier, the court had issued interim orders to the collector and others to not carry out any construction work that could affect the petitioners’ land unless the landowners were paid compensation. Compensation should be paid as per the rules of land acquisition and benefits under the rehabilitation and resettlement policy, the court had ordered.

But, the construction work went on despite court orders and the petitioners’ lands were submerged. No compensation was given to the petitioners. Following this, a contempt case was filed, based on which Justice Ramachandra Rao sentenced the officers and directed them to pay Rs 10,000 to each petitioner.