Hyderabad: Justice NV Shravan Kumar of Telangana high court took serious note of non-compliance with court orders on compensation due to farmers whose land parcels were acquired by the state for the Shankara Samudram balancing reservoir in Wanaparthy district, and directed principal secretary, irrigation and CAD department, Rahul Bojja, principal secretary, finance department, Sandeep Kumar Sulthania, and chief commissioner of land administration DS Lokesh Kumar to appear in person and show cause why action cannot be initiated against them for contempt of court. The judge adjourned the matter to Feb 2 for further hearing.Expressing strong resentment over non-compliance despite several opportunities, the judge on Monday opined that it would be forced to stall all land acquisitions if compensation was not paid to land owners whose land parcels were acquired.
The court rapped the authorities for not releasing compensation despite directing them to release 50% of the compensation in April 2025, and despite the authorities seeking additional time to comply with the court orders.The contempt petition was filed by over 60 farmers from Pangal mandal in the district. During the hearing, counsel for the farmers informed the court that the land was acquired for the project in 2013 with a certain amount as compensation. However, when the farmers approached the Wanaparthy civil court for enhancing the compensation, the court ruled in their favour in 2023.When this enhanced compensation was challenged in the high court, a single judge in April 2025 ordered that 50% of the compensation amount as decided by the civil court had to be released.As there was an abnormal delay in releasing the 50% compensation amount, the farmers moved a contempt petition. In response, the principal secretary, finance department filed a counter stating that his department would process the payments when the concerned file was circulated from the principal secretary, irrigation and CAD department.Further, the state counsel sought additional time to file counters, to which the judge questioned how authorities would acquire fresh land without compensation for already acquired land parcels.
