The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday gave varying jail terms to and imposed fines on four IAS officers — Revu Muthyala Raju (Additional Secretary to CM), S.S. Rawat (Principal Ssecretary- Finance), M.V. Seshagiri Babu (Inspector-General of Registration and Stamps) and A.Md. Imtiyaz, and retired IAS officer Manmohan Singh — in a contempt case, but allowed them to make appeals in a month, during which period the jail term will be suspended.
The court ordered that the petitioner, T. Savitramma, should be paid compensation out of the salaries of these officers.
Contempt notices were served on them earlier for their failure to pay compensation (in spite of court orders) to Savitramma of Nellore district for acquiring a three-acre D-form patta land in Yerragunta village in Venkatachalam Mandal that was owned by her husband Venkataiah, who died in April 2018.
Mr. Mutyala Raju and Mr. Seshagiri Babu were Collectors of Nellore district, Mr. Manmohan Singh was Principal Secretary (Revenue) and Mr. Imtiyaz was the Joint Collector at that time.
Ms. Savitramma argued that the land was allotted and given possession to the erstwhile National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped for the construction of its regional centre without being compensated as per rules. Moreover, when the matter was pending to be sorted out, the MRO concerned had issued a notice dated November 5, 2016 seeking an explanation within 15 days as to why the patta granted to her should not be cancelled due to its non-cultivation.
