Through an appeal, the state government on Tuesday challenged the order of a single judge directing the Andhra Pradesh High Court Registry to lodge a criminal contempt against Additional CID director-general of police S.V. Ramana Murthy.

Mr Ramana Murthy also filed an appeal on his own behalf against the single judge’s order. The single judge had found fault with Mr Ramana Murthy and director-general of police V. Dinesh Reddy for suppressing facts in the filing of a counter affidavit in respect of a plea by senior IPS officer Umesh Kumar.

In the plea, Mr Umesh Kumar had challenged the filing of a case against him by the Crime Investigation Department for his alleged involvement in forging a letter of a Congress MP. Mr Ramana Murthy contended that he did not suppress the memo issued by the DGP on August 24, 2011 by directing the CID to register a case on the forged letter controversy. It was “very much available” with the material papers filed before the court along with his counter affidavit, Mr Ramana Murthy said.

He also placed the memo before the court, as issued by the state government on August 2, 2011, directing him to enquire into the forged letter issue. Meanwhile, Mr Dinesh Reddy moved the court against the order of the single judge directing the state government to inquire into allegations and counter-allegations between him and Mr Umesh Kumar.

LAND ACQUISITION ORDER SET ASIDE
The High Court on Tuesday set aside a notification issued by the government to acquire 47 acres of land in Vattinagulapally, a prime location near financial district near Gachibowli. The court took a serious note of the fact that, often, land from the poor was being acquired for the use of the affluent people. Issuing the order, Justice L. Narasimha Reddy also criticised the bureaucracy for proceeding with the acquisition, unmindful of its own orders, and land use criteria in the master plan.

He was dealing with a batch of 21 writ petitions filed against the March 2005 notification of the government, on the acquisition of the land for an Information Technology park. The judge said the proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act were put to gross misuse. Besides, the government orders and master plan were "violated with impunity".

The government issued acquisition proceedings for the land to develop the park through Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, but later realised that the area fell in the conservation zone and in the GO 111 which regulated development in the catchment areas of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar. Hence, the plan could not be proceeded with. When the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) dropped its acquisition plans, the Housing Board chipped in and wanted the acquisition to be completed for its own purpose.

Referring to the government changing the purpose of acquisition with a single communication from the Housing Board managing director, the Judge said the bureaucracy violated the business rules. He dubbed the action as "blasphemy of law". Justice Narasimha Reddy went on to observe that water bodies in the city either vanished or got polluted thanks to official apathy.

The Mir Alam tank water, that was once rich in minerals but at present it was not safe for even animals to quench their thirst. A good number of tanks in and around the city had disappeared beyond trace of identity, the jugde said. “It is a matter of record that assignments made in favour of landless poor even during the regime of H.E.H. the Nizam or in early 1950s were cancelled (by the government) with the sole objective of taking away the lands and assigning them to affluent individuals or organisations. If, by chance, private individuals happened to own lands within the vicinity, indiscriminate acquisitions were resorted to” the judge said.

COURT SUMMONS RSC OFFICIALS
The High Court on Tuesday summoned the managing director of Rajiv Swagruha Corporation Ltd, Shalini Mishra, IAS, to appear, and E. Shankar, general manager, to appear in person, before the court on April 24. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was dealing with a contempt case by the Arambha Rajiv Swagruha Welfare Association which complained that the authorities failed to implement an order passed on February 28.

Taking a serious view of the non-implementation of its earlier order, the bench remarked that the corporation has even failed to file the counter affidavit within two weeks pursuant to the notice issued by the court on March 22.