VIJAYAWADA: A division bench of the AP High Court has suspended the single judge order sentencing two government officers to imprisonment till the rising of the court and a fine of Rs 1,000 on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the single bench of Justice Battu Devanand sentenced two senior officers for contempt since there was delay in complying with the court order. The single judge had ordered one month imprisonment and Rs 2,000 fine but later modified it to imprisonment till the rising of the court (end of the day) and fine of Rs 1,000. A contempt appeal was filed before the division bench of Justice C. Praveen Kumar and Justice BVLN Chakravarthi, which led to the suspension of single judge order. The appeal was filed by C Suman, special government pleader, who submitted that the court order has been implemented but with a delay.
Observing the arguments, the division bench suspended the order of the single judge. The bureaucrats in question were then principal secretary (education) B Rajasekhar and former commissioner of Intermediate Education V Ramakrishna. The matter pertains to the orders issued by Justice Devanand in 2020 to regularise the services of a petitioner, VRSVN Sambasiva Rao, who was working as a part-time lecturer in VEC junior college. As the orders were not implemented, Sambasiva Rao filed a contempt petition against Rajasekhar and Ramakrishna.
Justice Devanand, who heard the contempt petition recently, said that the two officials have intentionally not implemented the court orders. He had asked the two officials to appear before it. The duo appeared before the court on Wednesday. When the court asked as to why its orders were not implemented, the officials tendered an apology for the delay. The court, however, refused to accept the apology and sentenced them to one month imprisonment and Rs 1,000 fine each. Justice Devanand asked the Special Protection Force (SPF), which provides security to the court complex, to take the two officials into custody and informed the Thullur police.
Government Pleader Raghuveer sought the court to suspend the orders for two days but Justice Devanand refused to grant any relief. At this juncture, the two officials once again tendered an unconditional apology. Considering the age of the officials and their health condition, He modified the order and sentenced them to imprisonment till the rising of the court and Rs 1,000 fine. The court said the officials have to undergo seven days simple imprisonment in case of default of paying fine. The division bench has later suspended the orders of the single judge.