Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday expressed its anger over Siddipet Collector P. Venkatarama Reddy for his remarks on judiciary and warned him to face consequences for making open defiance of the courts.
It may be remembered that Reddy said recently that he would not honour orders of the Supreme Court or the High Court in case paddy seed dealers got permission from the courts to sell them to farmers. The court took serious note of the collector threatening seed dealers not to sell paddy seeds for the Rabi season. Reddy made the comments in a meeting held with seed dealers and agriculture officials in Siddipet on October 25.
Justice Tadakamalla Vinod Kumar felt the collector’s remarks amounted to contempt. The judge directed the High Court registrar to place the issue before a division bench headed by the Chief Justice to initiate a criminal contempt case against Venkatrama Reddy. The court also directed the collector not to restrain or prohibit sale of paddy seed, else he would have to face consequences.
Justice Vinod Kumar was dealing with a petition filed by Bathula Narayana, a farmer from Imambad in Siddipet district, who said due to the collector’s oral orders, he could not get any paddy seed from the dealers to cultivate in Rabi season.
Chinnolla Naresh Reddy, counsel for the petitioner, submitted the pen drive which had the video of collector’s sensational comments and clip of Deccan Chronicle newspaper, which reported the incident on these columns on October 25. Naresh Reddy further said due to these types of threats, farmers were having trouble getting paddy seed.
After reading the news article, the court sought clarification from the government whether any ban was imposed on cultivation of paddy in the state for Rabi season. The judge sought assistance from the advocate general B.S. Prasad, and directed the government counsel to ask the AG to be present before the court.
At that time, the judge also observed, if these types of decisions were taken, the Court would stop the land acquisition process in agricultural lands for irrigation projects. Prasad appeared in the court and said there was no ban on the sale of paddy seeds. He also requested the court to provide time to the collector to explain the whole issue.
Denying the request, Justice Vinod Kumar asked, "Is he (collector) thinking he is above the law? How can he threaten seed dealers not to sell paddy seeds and restrict farmers from cultivating paddy in Rabi season? Holding the position of executive magistrate of the district, how could he threaten them and make unsavoury comments against the judiciary?”
