Telangana High Court slaps Laxmidevipet Sarpanch with Rs 50k fine

Hyderabad: The High Court division bench on Monday headed by Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Abhishek Reddy imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Gattu Kumara Swamy, Sarpanch of Laxmidevipet gram panchayat, Venkatapur mandal, Mulug district, for suppressing and concealing the fact that he was one of the accused in FIRs registered against the villagers of Laxmidevipet and directed the Sarpanch to deposit Rs 50,000 to the Telangana State Legal Services Authority within two weeks.

The Division Bench was hearing the Public Interest Litigation filed by the Sarpanch of Laxmidevipet alleging that the Station House Officer of Venkatapur police station was harassing the villagers, and upon his insistence, cases have been slapped against poor villagers, who were agitating for their rights over the lands in the said village. Though the petitioner and the villagers approached the DGP and filed a representation seeking action against the SHO, no action has been taken yet.

Chief Justice Hima Kohli was furious at petitioner's counsel Kurapati Sujatha, stating that as an officer of the court she should restrain the petitioner from resorting to suppression of facts. The Chief Justice observed, "When there is an FIR against petitioner, how dare he approaches the court with guts and say that he is not involved in any civil and criminal litigation." Further, the CJ questioned the petitioner as to why he should not be prosecuted for filing the PIL suppressing information and tried for perjury for taking the court for a ride and misleading it.

While dismissing the PIL, the division bench imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the Sarpanch on the ground that he had filed a vague PIL knowing that he was part of the crime. Despite such a fact, he had sworn in an affidavit stating that he was not involved in any civil or criminal case, which amounts to perjury and made it very clear that the court would never accept such suppression of facts.