Vizag JC pays Rs 2,000 fine for citing trivial reason before HC

Joint collector of Visakhapatnam district G Srijana was slapped a fine of Rs 2,000 by the Hyderabad High Court of Judicature for citing a trivial reason for her absence at a court hearing related to the payment of gratuity to former employees of the VV Ramana Cooperative Sugar Factory at Tummapala in the district.
Nearly 200 retired employees of the sugar factory, in which the government is a 98% stakeholder, are waging a legal battle since 2010 in order to get their gratuity.
The petitioners say this is a classic example of government indifference to their plight.
Following a plea by the employees, an authority set up under Gratuity Act had directed the government to pay the gratuity dues to the retired employees of the now defunct company. When this was not implemented, Dadi Suryaprakash Rao and 59 other employees filed a plea in the Hyderabad High Court.
Justice P Naveen Rao who heard the matter directed the state of AP in April 2017 to pay the dues to the retired employees immediately. When this order too was ignored, the aggrieved employees filed a contempt plea. The judge summoned Visakhapatnam joint collector G Srijana, asking her to be present before the court on February 2.
What made him unhappy was the reason cited by Srijana in her plea filed before the HC seeking exemption from appearance. A private programme meant for women entrepreneurs was to be held in Vizag on that day and the JC cited this as a reason for her inability to appear in court, PB Vijay Kumar, the counsel for the petitioners told the court.
The judge then imposed a penalty of Rs 2,000 on the JC and directed her to be present in court on February 8, on which day Srijana appeared in court and paid the penalty. The AP counsel sought six weeks’ time to implement the order.