Five Andhra bureaucrats get jail for ‘wilful disobedience’

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, September 3

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has come down on five IAS bureaucrats for “wilful disobedience” of the court. Four serving IAS officers and one retired have been sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. They have been held guilty for not complying with the court order in 2017.

At the same time, the High Court let off three other IAS officers, including Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, holding them not guilty.

The convicted IAS officers include Principal Finance Secretary Shamsher Singh Rawat, Chief Minister’s Additional Secretary Revu Mutyala Raju, SPS Nellore district Collector K V N Chakradhara Babu and former Collector M V Seshagiri Babu and retired IAS officer Manmohan Singh, who was the then Principal Secretary (Revenue) in 2017.

Mutyala Raju had also previously served as Collector of SPS Nellore district.

Justice Battu Devanand pronounced the order on a contempt petition filed by agriculturist Tallapaka Savitramma of SPS Nellore district. Rawat and Singh have been sentenced to one-month imprisonment, while others have been sentenced to two weeks imprisonment, according to the petitioner’s lawyer C Vani Reddy.

Savitramma filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2017 stating that her land measuring 3 acres was resumed by the revenue authorities and allotted to the National Institute of Mental Health without any notice or payment of compensation.

Reddy said a fine of Rs 1,000 has also been imposed on each of them. However, the order has been kept under suspension for a month to enable the convicted officer to file an appeal.