VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday took serious objections to an article published in a Telugu vernacular daily stating that bills were not being paid to contractors even after directions from the court.
When the petitions filed by contractors seeking court directions to the government to clear pending bills for hearing, government pleader V Kiran informed the HC that bills worth thousands of crores of rupees were cleared following its directions. Kiran said the Telugu daily, however, published a story that not a single rupee was paid in spite of court directions and read a portion from the said article.
Justice B Devanand wondered as to how the publication could write that not a single rupee was paid to the contractors. Justice Devanand said writing such stories without knowing the facts and any evidence is an interference in the judicial process.
Justice Devanand asked counsels of two of the petitioners -- K Suresh Kumar Reddy and B Satyanarayana -- whether their clients were not getting payments even after the court directions. Both Satyanarayana and Suresh Kumar Reddy informed the court that their clients were paid.
Justice Devanand said when an official was punished in a contempt case for not implementing the court orders for years together, some newspapers reported it by saying it was a ‘shock to the CM’. Justice Devanand said such reporting may create friction between the Constitutional bodies.
Stay on Amaravati land scam probe extended
The State High Court on Wednesday extended the stay on investigation and any further action into the case registered by the Crime Investigation Department into Amaravati land scam against former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and ex-minister P Narayana, by another six weeks. The CID had filed a case against Chandrababu Naidu, Narayana and others following a complaint by Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy alleging irregularities in the alienation of assigned lands in Amaravati during the previous TDP regime.