Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has directed three IAS officers and two Irrigation department officials to appear in person in a contempt of court case over failure to implement its earlier orders on regularisation of services and pension benefits for retired employees.
The court said the officials need not appear if the orders are implemented by the 13th of this month.
Background
The contempt petition was filed by Jagannatham along with six others, alleging that the authorities failed to comply with the High Court’s 2023 directions. In that judgment, the court had ordered the government to regularise the services of certain Irrigation department employees from 1993 and extend all consequential retirement and pension benefits from that date.
Despite these directions, the petitioners contended that the benefits were not granted, prompting them to approach the court again.
Hearing
A division bench comprising Justice P Shyam Koshi and Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar heard the matter and expressed displeasure over the delay in implementing its earlier orders.
The bench stressed that compliance with judicial directions is mandatory and cannot be ignored.
Directions
The court directed the authorities to implement the 2023 judgment in full by the 13th of this month. It made it clear that failure to do so would require the concerned officials to appear personally before the court.
The officials named in the order include K Ramakrishna Rao, then principal secretary of the Finance department, Rahul Bojja, then principal secretary of the Irrigation department, former Khammam collector Muzammil Khan, Engineer-in-Chief G Anil Kumar, Superintending Engineer R Sudheer and executive engineer H V Ram Prasad.
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