SCB officials given two months\' jail for violation of court decree on land ownership
Hyderabad: Two officials — the defence estate officer and the general officer in command of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board — were punished with jail for a period of two months for their “wilful disobedience” and violation of the decree of permanent injunction passed by the city civil court of Secunderabad.
The XXVII additional chief judge’s court which passed the sentence was dealing with an interim application filed by Anand Bala and others who sought action against officials of the Defence Estate Office for not allowing them access to their six-acre patta land at Yapral that lay close to the quarters of defence officers.
In 2017, the court had issued a decree in favour of Anand Bala and others, ruling that the land was absolutely a patta land and in no way related to either the land belonging to the defence department or the Cantonment Board. The court had also issued injunction orders restraining the defence department from entering the land belonging to Anand Bala.
Despite the decree and injunction orders, the officials of the defence department used their force and power to deny the landowners the access to their land.
When it was noticed that some works were being done in the patta land by the defence department, Anand Bala filed the EP to implement the earlier orders and to restrain the defence personnel from causing any inconvenience to him vis-à-vis entry to his land.
Considering the facts, the court punished the officers for two months’ civil prison. They were directed to make good the damage they did to the property and erect the fence and gate within a period of one month, failing which, the petitioners are at liberty to get these done and recover the costs thereof from the officers.
The judge also directed the station house officer of the police station having jurisdiction over the area to provide necessary support to the decree holders to prevent the defence personnel from further violating the injunction order passed by the court.
