The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Contempt case: 3 IAS officers appear in court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Contempt case: 3 IAS officers appear in court

By Our Legal Correspondent

HYDERABAD, NOV. 25. Three senior I.A.S. Officers personally appeared before the Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, comprising the Judges-- B. Sudershan Reddy and T. Ch. Surya Rao-- on Thursday to answer the charges of the contempt regarding the action of the Government pertaining to N.V.R. Cooperative Sugar Factory at Jampani, Guntur district.

Kondapi Janaki, Principal Secretary, Implementation Secretariat, Krupanandam, Principal Secretary,Industries, Premchand, Director & Commissioner of Sugar, were present in the Court Hall along with the Managing Director of Krebs Biotech.

It may be recalled that when the previous Government wanted to sell the cooperative sugar factory farmers led by Challapalli Ravi filed a writ petition and sale process was set aside after declaring that certain provisions of the A.P. Cooperative Society Act were unconstitutional. After the Division bench had set aside the action of the Government, the State Government as well as the private entrepreneur, i.e. Krebs Biotech, filed separate petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court. The Supreme Court refused to grant stay in these petitions.

The farmers who filed the present contempt case complained to the court that subsequent to the judgment of the Division Bench of this High Court and the refusal of the Supreme Court to grant any stay, the officers had to pass orders to see that the sugar factory was run in the cooperative sector and the elected body of the farmers would run the affairs of the factory. They complained to the court that the officers had not taken step deliberately to benefit the private entrepreneurs in violation of the letter and spirit of the judgement of the High Court.

The bench posted the matter for December 2, 2004, on request made on behalf of the Government.

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