VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh each on 14 petitioners for concealing facts to secure an interim stay on the demolition drive at Ippatam. It may be recalled that 14 people from the village had filed petitions before the court claiming that the officials of the Mangalagiri-Tadepalli Municipal Corporation had demolished their houses, constructed on road margins, without serving show cause notices. After hearing the pleas, the court had issued an interim stay on the demolition drive.
During further hearing, the civic body officials produced copies of notices served to the house owners as evidence. The petitioners then agreed that they were indeed served notices. Finding fault with them for concealing facts and securing an interim stay, the court summoned the petitioners.Eleven petitioners appeared before the court, while three others sought exemption.
Speaking to the first petitioner, Bellamkonda Venkatanarayana, Justice Ravi Nath Tilhari sought to know whether the latter can understand Hindi or English. After Venkatanarayana replied in the negative, Justice Tilhari asked advocate S Lakshminarayana Reddy to translate the questions posed by the bench to the petitioner.
Venkatanarayana confirmed that the petitioners had received notices in May. Citing that none of them are highly-educated, he said they were not aware of what was written in the notice.Stating that the petitioners were farmers and have no knowledge about notices, the counsel tried to plead before the court that they did not try to conceal the facts.Justice Tilhari questioned the petitioners whether securing an interim stay by claiming that they were not served show cause notices amounted to concealing facts.
The bench then imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh each on the 14 petitioners and ordered that the amount be deposited with the State Legal Services Authority.The court maintained that showing mercy in such cases would send a wrong message and observed that though there was a need to take action under criminal contempt of court, the bench was confining the punishment to penalty.Responding to the verdict, YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said facts behind the demolition drive, which was politicised by the Opposition TDP and JSP, have been exposed.