In a sensational judgement, a full bench of the Andhra Pradesh high court on Thursday an order sentencing eight senior IAS officers to two weeks’ imprisonment on the charges of contempt of court.
The eight IAS officers are: Vijay Kumar, Shyamala Rao, Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, Budithi Rajasekhar, Y Srilakshmi, Girija Shankar, Vadrevu Chinna Veerabhadrudu and M M Naik.
However, all the eight IAS officers tendered an unconditional apology to the state high court, admitting their guilt. They said it was a mistake on their part to ignore the court orders and assured that they would not repeat their mistakes again.
The high court bench admitted their apologies and directed that in lieu of the imprisonment, the IAS officers should to do social service for a day in a social welfare hostel every month. They should serve food to the poor students for a day every month up to one year.
The IAS officers accepted the high court offer and assured to follow the directions. They gave an undertaking to this effect to the high court.
The case is about construction of village secretariat buildings on the premises of the high schools and other government buildings.
The state government lost the case in the high court and the latter has directed that all such buildings be removed from those places.
However, the IAS officers concerned have failed to implement the orders given by the court, as a result of which the high court took up suo motu case of contempt against the bureaucrats.
After hearing the arguments on both the sides, the high court bench ordered that the IAS officers be sentenced to two weeks’ of jail.
