Telangana High Court on Wednesday set aside a single judge order awarding six-month simple imprisonment to three police officers, including South zone IG V.B. Kamalasan Reddy, allowing contempt appeals filed by them.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili said in its order that the single judge erred in sentencing the police officers and passing further directions relating to imposition of fines on them. In 2015, the management of Pushpanjali Country Resort located on Karimngar city outskirts had filed a writ petition urging the HC to direct the police not to interfere with the lawful activities, including playing Rummy, on the resort premises.
A single judge adjudicated the petition instructing the police not to intefere with the game of Rummy on resort premises. The judge also directed the resort management to install video cameras on resort premises and get them connected to jurisdictional police concerned. The order also said police were entitled to enter resort premises in case of any law violations.
Subsequently, the police raided the resort thrice from November 12, 2016 to April 8, 2017. The resort represented by its acting president V. Jagapathi Rao, who is an ex-MLA and ex-MLC, in 2017 filed a contempt petition against the then Police Commissioner V.B. Kamalasan Reddy, ACP Thirupathi and Rural Inspector Shashidhar Reddy alleging that they conducted raids in violation of the single judge order.
Delivering verdict in the contempt petition in 2019, the single judge awarded six-month simple imprisonment to the three police officers and imposed ₹2,000 fine on each of them. Exemplary costs of ₹10,000 each were also imposed on the police officers. Observing that the police abused their power and deliberately violated the court’s direction issued in 2015, the judge said the punishment details should be entered in the service records of the police officers.
The three police officers appealed against the single judge directions in 2019. While Advocate General B.S. Prasad appeared for the officers, senior counsel V. Ravikiran Rao presented arguments for the resort management.
Delivering verdict on Wednesday in the appeal petitions, the division bench headed by the CJ noted that the single judge order issued in 2015 itself authorised police to enter the resort premises to check in case of any violations of law. The police entered the resort and found that the resort management had indulged in illegal activity, the bench said in the judgment.
The single judge ought not have sentenced the appellants to civil imprisonment more so when the police were discharging their official duties, the bench said in its verdict.
