Telangana High Court sentences Ranga Reddy Collector to six months’ imprisonment for wilful disobedience in a contempt case

The Telangana High Court awarded six-month imprisonment to Ranga Reddy district Collector C. Narayana Reddy in a contempt of court case. Justice K. Lakshman of the High Court, pronouncing the punishment holding the IAS officer guilty of wilful disobedience of the HC order, also imposed a fine of ₹2,000 on the Collector. 

The judge, however, suspended the sentence for four weeks giving an opportunity to the officer to go for an appeal. The contempt of court case was filed by a housewife P. Shivaleela and her husband P. Venkateshwarlu stating that the Collector wilfully disobeyed an order passed by the HC in 2025 while disposing of their writ petition seeking a direction to issue No Objection Certificate for their open plots at Turkayamjal in Ranga Reddy district. 

On August 5 last year, the HC passed an order instructing the Collector to consider the representation of the couple for deleting their plots from list of prohibitory properties. The Collector should pass a reasoned order if he was not inclined to accept the request of the couple and communicate the same to them within 60 days, the order said. 

The Collector did not appeal against this order. He did not pass any order in the stipulated time as per the HC verdict. This amounted to wilful disobedience and violation of the order, Justice K. Lakshman noted. Interestingly, the Collector passed an order rejecting the request of the couple ‘only after receiving notices in the contempt case’, the judge said.