The Telangana High Court Friday overruled an office objection regarding maintainability in a contempt case filed against the state’s Director General of Police (DGP), and other officials, and directed the contempt case to be formally numbered.
The case was initiated by T S A Prasad, an Inspector at the Police Control Room, who alleged deliberate and continuous disobedience of court orders regarding his promotion.
The contempt plea stems from a writ petition filed earlier by Prasad, challenging the authorities’ inaction in considering his claim for promotion to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (Civil). On August 28, 2023, the court had explicitly directed the authorities to consider Prasad’s promotion claim within two months.
Prasad’s counsel, Deepak Misra, highlighted that despite an instruction in December 2023 from the Principal Secretary, Home Department, to the DGP to consider the promotion on an ad-hoc basis pending any court or authority’s decision, no action has been taken by the DGP so far.
Misra argued that numerous representations made to the DGP have also yielded no results, leaving the petitioner’s efforts in vain. He further emphasised the injustice meted out to Prasad, as his colleagues have received promotions while his remained stalled.
“The Registry had the objection that the contempt plea is not maintainable as it has been beyond a year since the order was passed. The limitation for contempt is one year. I argued that it is a continuous contempt as the petitioner was corresponding with the DGP as the State had already given instructions to him to pass necessary orders,” Misra told The Indian Express.
Responding to the alleged delay of over a year in approaching the court for contempt, he contended that the inaction by the authorities, despite repeated representations, meant that there was no delay in pursuing legal remedies.
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Justice J Sreenivas Rao, after considering these arguments, found merit in the petitioner’s submission. He overruled the Registry’s objection and directed the contempt case to be formally numbered.
