VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed eight senior IAS officers to do service at social welfare hostels on one Sunday of every month for an entire year. The officers were also asked to spend a day with students at hostels and bear the expenses of lunch or dinner of the latter.
The court, dealing with petitions challenging the government’s move to construct secretariats and Rythu Bharosa Kendras on government school premises, had, in fact, sentenced the eight officers to two weeks of imprisonment for contempt of court orders.
With the IAS officers tendering an unconditional apology, the court remitted the sentence and asked them to serve at hostels. While dealing with the petitions, Justice B Devanand had earlier directed the State government not to construct either secretariats or RBKs in government schools.
With construction going on in some schools despite the court order, it took suo-motu cognisance and initiated contempt proceedings against the IAS officers.Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj) Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, Panchayat Raj Commissioner Girija Shankar, former Principal Secretary (School Education) B Rajasekhar, former Commissioner of School Education V Chinna Veerabhadrudu, former Principal Secretary (Municipal Administration) J Syamala Rao, Special Chief Secretary (Municipal Administration) Y Srilakshmi, former Director of Municipal Administration Vijay Kumar Gsrkr, present Director MM Nayak were asked to do service by the court.
The court felt that the officers were disobedient to the court order. They were negligent in implementing the court orders for one year, the court observed and said it is the responsibility of the government to protect the rights of students hailing from poor and middle-income groups who study in government schools.
The court said though the government filed an affidavit in the court that it had demolished constructions in 1,371 government schools following the court orders, fresh petitions were filed challenging the construction of RBKs and secretariats in schools.
It felt that more and more fresh petitions are being filed as the government is not following its orders in true spirit. Justice Devanand sentenced the eight officers to undergo two weeks imprisonment and imposed a fine of `1,000 each.
Government pleader C Suman said the court had earlier appreciated the municipal administration department for demolishing the constructions and pleaded to show sympathy towards the officials. Stating that it is a fact that he had appreciated the department in a previous instance, Justice Devanand said the department did not implement the court orders for one full year.
After sentencing them to imprisonment, Justice Devanand asked the officers if they want to make any submissions. Agreeing that there was a delay in implementing the court orders, the officers tendered an unconditional apology and assured that such lapses would not recur in the future.
Justice Devanand said the court would accept their apologies if they are ready to do social service. With all the officers agreeing to it, the court altered its orders considering their age and the Covid-19 situation.
Justice Devanand directed the officers to so social service at social welfare hostels. The officers were asked to undertake social work on a Sunday of a month for one year by spending some time with the students and motivating them. The eight officers were directed to bear the expenses incurred for lunch or dinner of the hostel inmates.
The officers were also asked to submit a memo on the hostel visited and the food arrangements made by them before the Registrar (Judicial). Justice Devanand also said the failure to implement the court orders would be considered contempt and the contempt petition would be reopened again.
Allotted districts
Gopalakrishna Dwivedi - Krishna
Girija Shankar - Prakasam
B Rajasekhar - Srikakulam
V Veerabhadrudu - Vizianagaram
J Syamala Rao - Anantapur
Y Srilakshmi - West Godavari
Vijay Kumar GSRKR - Kurnool
MM Nayak - Nellore