AP High Court punishes two senior officers for contempt of court

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has sentenced two senior officials to nine days in jail and fined him Rs 1,000 in contempt of court case.

Panchayati Raj commissioner M Girija Shankar and former commissioner of horticulture department Chiranjeevi Chowdary faced the wrath of the court for neglecting the court orders.

Both of the officers, however, apologized and said they would be more careful with court orders. The HC then amended the verdict considering their age and current Covid-19 conditions and made the two officials stand in the court till the end of the closing hours. The order was passed by Justice B Devanand on Tuesday.

Going into details, the Department of Horticulture had issued a notification on January 10, 2020, for filling the posts of Village Horticulture Assistant. In the same month, an amendment notification was issued removing some of the eligibility criteria for the aspirants.

Challenging this, S Krishna and 35 other aspirants filed a petition in the High Court last year. The High Court, hearing the case, quashed the amendment notification. The state filed a petition challenging the interim orders, but the court struck it down. As the government did not obey the court orders to allow them to apply for the posts, the petitioners filed a contempt petition.

Following the hearing, Justice B Devanand ruled the authorities had not deliberately enforced the court order. The petition came up for hearing again on Tuesday.