The Hyderabad High Court on Monday refused to issue a notice to Telangana IAS officer Smitha Sabharwal on a petition challenging the state's decision to sanction an amount to meet her legal expenses for a defamation case.

A report in the Deccan Chronicle adds:

The bench was dealing with two PILs filed by K. Eshwar Rao and Vattsala Vidyasagar and a writ petition by Outlook Publishing challenging the GO issued by the government on August 28 sanctioning Rs 15 lakh to Ms Sabharwal, additional secretary in the CMO, for payment of court fee and expenses for filing a civil suit seeking damages of Rs 10 crore against the management of Outlook for publishing of news report along with a cartoon allegedly to defame her.

The court felt that there was nothing wrong in a state financially assisting an officer if the government felt that its own image was tainted.

According to reports, the bench also pointed out to the petitioner's counsel that the government generally authorizes an officer to move a case before any of the courts, and in this case the respondent herself is an aggrieved party besides the government.

The case was later adjourned by four weeks pending a quash petition's orders.