Hyderabad: High Court issues contempt notice to Venkatarama Reddy

Hyderabad: The High Court Division Bench on Tuesday issued contempt notice to the former District Collector of Siddipet, P Venkatarama Reddy, and asked him to respond within four weeks.

The contempt case arose out of the writ petition filed by a farmer Bathula Narayana from Siddipet, who was aggrieved by the action of Reddy, who had put a curb on sale of paddy seeds in Siddipet district due to which the petitioner could not grow paddy on his 2 acres of land. In an open meeting held with the seed dealers and the fertiliser shop owners in Siddipet a weeks ago, Venkatarama Reddy had threatened the seed dealers of serious consequences if they sell paddy seeds. Further showing scant respect for the Supreme Court and the High Court, Reddy, in full public glare, had uttered that he would not even care the order of High Court or the Supreme Court allowing the sale of paddy seed.

Irked by the statements made by Reddy, Justice T Vinod Kumar observed that such remarks against courts would not be tolerated at any cost, and directed the Registry to place the writ plea before the Chief Justice Bench duly recommending initiation of contempt proceedings against Reddy for uttering the demeaning and derogatory remarks against the Apex Court and the High Court. During the course of arguments, the Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma asked Advocate General Banda Shivananda Prasad as to whether the former IAS officer had apologised for making such remarks which depicts scant regard for the Supreme Court and the High Court. "He should have apologised," observed the CJ.

The Advocate General, while replying to the oral observations of the CJ, said that an unconditional written apology would be placed before the Court.