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Farm and Forest Rule of Law

IAS officers sentenced to 3 months for disobeying court, usurping farmers lands

Telangana HC held that the farmers were not adequately compensated for their acquired lands, and construction was started on their lands despite court orders restraining it

Telangana hc order feb 25

The Telangana High Court has sentenced three civil servants to three months in prison, for acting in contravention to the court’s order and starting construction work on lands of the farmers, who were inadequately compensated. The petitioners’ crops were destroyed as their fields were submerged in water as a result of the construction of the reservoir.

The contempt petition was filed by residents of Ananthagiri village of Rajana Siricilla district since the District Collector, Joint Collector and the Land Acquisition Officer had wilfully acted in contravention to the high court’s order, restraining possession of the petitioners’ lands.

The lands of the petitioners, who are land owners and small farmers of agricultural lands in Anantagiri village, were acquired for construction of Anantagiri Reservoir under Kaleswaram Project as per notification issued under Section 11(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act. They had contended this in a writ petition filed in 2018, stating that the government had not followed mandatory procedure with regard to conduct of Grama Sabha, updating of land records, affording personal hearing on objections and procedures relating to determination of Resettlement and Rehabilitation entitlements. They also contended that they were given compensation under section 30 of the Act and not Resettlement and Rehabilitation Award under Section 31. The court thus, granted them interim protection that the government would be restrained from taking possession of their lands and from carrying out any construction on these lands.

The petitioners state that they were compelled to file contempt petition against the respondents as they started work on some parts of these lands in March 2019 and even though representation was immediately made to the Land Acquisition Officer regarding the same, the work continued on those lands and instead the petitioners were threatened by the police.

The petitioners contended that due to the work started by the respondents, their fields got submerged in water damaging their crops amount to loss of income and livelihood.

The court, after going through the material before it, including counter affidavits filed by the respondents, concluded that the claims of the respondents that no attempts were made to dispossess the petitioners from their agricultural lands and residential houses, is false. The court also observed that the petitioners were not given the prescribed Resettlement and Rehabilitation Award under section 31 of the Act.

The court further held that the interim passed by the court restraining respondents from taking possession of the petitioners’ agricultural lands continues as it had not been vacated and it would continue be in operation even if the petitioners were paid the said Award under section 31 of the Act.

The court held that the respondents wilfully disobeyed and acted in contempt of the court’s interim order, as the petitioners were dispossessed from their lands. The court sentenced the respondents to simple imprisonment of three months and fine of Rs. 2,000 and also directed them to pay Rs. 10,000 as costs to each of the petitioners within four weeks. The court suspended the sentence imposed for six weeks, and directed that an adverse entry be recorded in the service records of respondents as regards their wilful disobedience of court’s orders.

The complete order may be read here:

 

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