Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has taken a stern view of the failure of senior state government officials to clear long-pending civil contract dues despite earlier assurances to the court.
The court expressed dissatisfaction that, instead of complying with its orders, the authorities kept seeking repeated adjournments. The case pertains to unpaid civil contract bills amounting to about Rs 1.16 crore for works executed by K Anand & Company.
In April, the High Court had directed that these bills be paid within six weeks, but the order was not implemented, leading the contractor to file a contempt petition.Justice EV Venugopal heard the contempt petition and examined the non-compliance with the April order.
Petitioner’s arguments
Counsel for the petitioner, advocate DL Pandu, pointed out that the authorities had not cleared the bills within the time specified by the court, in violation of its clear directions.Taking note of this, the court issued directions to several senior officers to appear personally.
Finance department Principal Secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Panchayat Raj principal secretary N Sridhar, Engineer-in-Chief (Panchayat Raj) K Kanaka Ratnam, Karimnagar superintending engineer K Lachhaiah, Engineer Mohammed Abdur Rahman and PAO PV Narasimha Rao have been ordered to be present in person.
They have been asked to explain why action under contempt of court should not be taken against them for non-compliance with the earlier order.
HC fixes January 9 for officials’ personal appearance
The High Court has fixed January 9 for their personal appearance and for them to place their explanations before the bench.
The judge also observed that it was not proper for the officials to seek more time without first implementing the court’s directions and termed such conduct as unacceptable.
In this context, the court has issued notices directing that these officials must attend every hearing in the contempt case until its final disposal.
The matter will continue until the court is satisfied with compliance with its orders regarding payment of the contractor’s dues.
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