RDO gets month's jail & Rs 2,000 penalty for defying Telangana high court orders

HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court has sentenced Koppula Venkat Reddy, revenue divisional officer-cum-land reforms tribunal of Rajendranagar Mandal, Ranga Reddy, to one month of simple imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 after finding him guilty of contempt of court for disobeying court orders.Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy delivered the order on Thursday in connection with a long-pending dispute over 74 acres of land at Peddashapur village, near Shamshabad.Further, taking serious note of the RDO's conduct and to ensure fair and impartial adjudication of the dispute, the judge directed the Ranga Reddy collector to withdraw the matter from him and entrust it to another competent RDO.While the petitioner, Nawab Mohd Yousufuddin Khan, said the property is private patta land, the dispute dates back to 1977, when the land reforms tribunal classified it as ceiling land.

After moving through civil courts, the matter was remanded to the tribunal for a fresh decision.The current litigation began when the RDO, acting as the land reforms tribunal authority, failed to dispose of the matter in a time-bound manner after reserving it for orders in Nov 2024.When a petition was filed challenging this delay, the HC in February 2025 directed the RDO to pass appropriate orders within six weeks.

However, the official did not comply, leading to a contempt petition.Even after receiving contempt notices, the RDO did not respond until he was summoned to appear in Feb 2026. Though he passed an order on the dispute after being summoned by the court, the HC found the order to be deeply flawed.The judge said the RDO's order lacked reasoning and contained conclusions that were inconsistent and contradicted the existing records.The court said when a matter is remanded to an authority for reconsideration, it must be handled with application of facts, before holding him guilty of contempt. The HC suspended the sentence for two weeks, directing him to surrender before registrar (Judicial-I), HC, to undergo the prison sentence.