Andhra Pradesh High Court orders contempt case against eight IAS officers
VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh High Court has ordered its registry to book a contempt of court case against eight IAS officers, directing them to appear before it in the next hearing on August 31.
The court had earlier ordered that no government buildings must be constructed on premises of schools. But there had been a delay in implementing this order.
A single judge bench headed by Justice Battu Devanand heard the petition on Monday about construction of buildings to accommodate village secretariat and Rythu Bharosa Kendram on premises of a government school in Visakhapatnam district.
Seven officials – panchayat raj principal secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi, its commissioner Girija Sankar, school education principal secretary B. Raja Sekhar, its commissioner V. Chinna Veerabhadrudu, special chief secretary Y. Srilakshmi, then municipal administration director G. Vijay Kumar and its director M. M. Naik – had been present in the court.
When the court asked them why they had failed in issuing orders to their lower staff about not allowing construction of buildings on school premises, they did not respond to the court.
The court then expressed anger over their failure to respond. It observed that officials are trying to escape from the responsibility of protecting school premises. The court asked whether any of them had studied in a government school and were aware of the fact that poor children pursue education in government schools.
Justice Devanand observed that 90 percent of IAS officers are under impression that they need not implement court orders.
However, advocate general S. Sriram submitted that he would discuss the issue with officials and assured that efforts will be made to implement the High Court’s order.
Earlier, special government pleader C. Sumon sought exemption for presence of then municipal administration principal secretary J. Syamala Rao as the latter was attending a meeting in Hyderabad. He also sought time to file counter affidavits.
The court accepted this and issued a direction that all eight IAS officers should appear before the court in the next hearing.
