Telangana High Court sentences Ranga Reddy Collector to six months in jail for willful disobedience in contempt case

The Telangana High Court has awarded six months in jail to Ranga Reddy District Collector C. Narayana Reddy in a contempt of court case. Justice K. Lakshman of the Supreme Court, who ruled to punish the IAS officer guilty of willfully disobeying the HC order, also imposed a fine of ₹2,000 on the collector.

However, the judge suspended the sentence for four weeks and gave the officer the opportunity to appeal. A contempt of court suit was filed by housewife P. Shivaleela and her husband P. Venkateshwarlu stating that the Collector willfully disobeyed an order passed by the HC in 2025 while disposing of their writ petition for a direction to issue a no-objection certificate for their open land at Turkayamjal in Ranga Reddy district.

On August 5 last year, the HC issued an order instructing the Collector to consider the couple’s representation for deletion of their land from the list of prohibited properties. The Collector should issue a reasoned order if he was not willing to accept the couple’s request and inform them within 60 days, the order said.

The Collector did not appeal against this order. In the stipulated time according to the verdict, the HC did not issue any order. Justice K. Lakshman observed that this amounted to willful disobedience and violation of the order. Interestingly, the Collector issued an order dismissing the couple’s application “only after receiving a contempt notice”, the judge said.

Published – November 9, 2026 10:22 PM IST