New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday criticised an officer for disobeying an order passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court and cautioned public officials from assuming that they were above the law. The matter came up before a bench comprising justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by the officer, challenging an order passed by the division bench of the High Court, refusing to entertain his contempt appeals. The officer is now a deputy collector.
During the hearing, the bench was informed by the petitioner’s counsel that the officer was present in the court. The bench told the counsel to ask the officer in which prison he wanted to go, and added, “There must be some prison at Amaravati or Vijaywada or Tihar. We will give him a choice….”.
The bench made it clear that the officers should not feel that they are above the law. “He was warned by the court once, and despite that, he repeats it”, said the bench. The officer’s counsel requested that the bench show some mercy towards him. The bench, while questioning the officer about the reasons for his defiance of the direction, asked his counsel, on what grounds should it show mercy?
The bench asked, “And how many families have you dis-housed? You took 80 odd policemen along with you and disobeyed the directions of the high court….”. The officer’s counsel said he would lose his job if he is in custody for 48 hours and requested the bench to consider heavy costs against him, and added that he had two minor children.
Justice Gavai said, "He should have thought about them when he dis-housed so many slum dwellers. Those people also had children”. However, the bench decided to take a lenient view in the matter and issued notice on the plea filed by the officer.
“The notice is made returnable on May 5," the bench said and put on hold the high court's order till then.
The bench said the respondents would be provided legal aid through the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee.
The division bench of the high court had declined to interfere with a single judge's order, which sentenced the officer to imprisonment for two months for "deliberate and utter disobedience" of its order. The single judge's order came on the pleas alleging that the officer, who was then a tehsildar, forcibly removed hutments in Guntur district in January 2014 despite a December 11, 2013, direction restraining him from doing it.
Read more: We Are Facing Allegations Of Intruding On Executive: SC On Bengal Riots Plea
