Two Telangana govt servants issued warrants as lawyer loses cool in court hearing

A contempt hearing in Telangana High Court has resulted in bailable warrants being issued against two bureaucrats after the Additional Advocate General (AAG) for the Telangana government, J Ramachandra Rao, who was representing them, lost his cool. 

The Telangana High Court on Friday was hearing a contempt of court case filed by former Congress legislators Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar over their suspension from the Assembly last year.

The court issued bailable warrants against Assembly Secretary V. Narasimha Charyulu and Law Secretary V. Niranjan Rao as the lawyer asked ‘What nonsense?’ to a question on why the legislators were not present during the hearing. The court even directed the Hyderabad police to implement the court order unless each official furnishes a personal bond of Rs 10,000. They have been asked to appear before the court on February 15. 

When Justice B Siva Sankara Rao asked the advocate general why the officials had not appeared in the court, Deccan Chronicle reported the AAG as saying, “What is the exuberance (sic) in insisting the respondents to appear? Are the heavens falling down?”

The two Congress legislators, Venkat Reddy and Sampath, were suspended from the Telangana Assembly by the then-Speaker for indulging in unruly activities during the Governor's address to the joint sitting of the state legislature in March last year. The Legislature Secretary subsequently notified the vacancies for the two constituencies, Nalgonda and Alampur (SC).

A single bench judge revoked the suspension but the order was challenged by the state government. The case then went to a division bench which passed on the matter to the Telangana High Court to take a final call. It was during this round of hearing of the case where the AAG lost his cool as the High Court was insisting on the presence of the two officials. 

The court while reading the order then made it clear that the officials now have to show up in court and issued a bailable warrant. The court was taking a serious note on the non-implementation of the earlier court order revoking the suspension.