Telangana HC summons 2 top TS officials, pulls them for ignoring court directions

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court has summoned principal secretaries Vikas Raj (panchayat raj) and K. Ramakrishna Rao (finance) for personal appearance to explain why they should not be punished in a contempt case because of willful disobedience towards court directions.

Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao ordered both officials to appear on March 26 and adjourned all issues related to the case to the same date.

Justice Rao issued summons to them in a contempt case filed by 46 petitioners, who are working for decades as sweepers and full-time contingent employees in government schools across districts, which are under the control of the panchayat raj department. Though they were working in government schools, they were getting meagre amounts as wages, ranging from Rs 1,650 to Rs 4,000 per month.

Earlier, these petitioners sought directions to the education, panchayat raj and finance departments to pay them salaries drawn by full-time sweepers like in the case of Zilla Parishad schools.

Having considered their pleas and having regard for the law declared by the Supreme Court inState of Punjab and others vs. Jagjit Singh and others’, Justice Rao had on March 15, 2018, directed the principal secretaries to pay the petitioners on the basis of the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’, within a period of four weeks.

As per those directions, a minimum monthly pay of Rs 13,000 was to be paid to each petitioner. However, as it was not complied with by the authorities, even two years later, the court summoned them for personal appearance.