Andhra Pradesh high court summons chief secretary K Vijayanand over non-compliance in Group 1 issue

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over chief secretary K Vijayanand for not complying with its order in the Group-1 issue. The high court summoned Vijayanand to appear before it on Wednesday to explain why suo moto contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.The high xourt earlier directed the state govt to transfer all the successful Group-1 candidates of the 2018 notification who joined service to non-focal positions to ensure a transparent investigation into alleged irregularities in Group-1 evaluation.After considering multiple appeal petitions filed challenging the single judge order setting aside the Group-1 examination, the court directed the state govt to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged irregularities in the evaluation of answer sheets. The court also directed the state govt to transfer the candidates who joined service and file a compliance report.On Tuesday, the registrar judicial informed the high xourt that no report was filed by the chief secretary. A bench of Justice Battu Devanand and Justice Hari Haranatha Sharma asked Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas whether he had any information regarding the filing of the report.Srinivas told the bench that no report was filed yet, as the chief secretary intended to seek clarification from the court. However, he could not do so due to personal inconvenience. The bench said that, in court hearings, personal inconvenience cannot be considered and said that the action of the chief secretary was contemptuous in nature.As the advocate general pleaded to adjourn the matter for 1 day, the bench said that they wanted to give an opportunity to the chief secretary before initiating contempt proceedings and directed him to be present before it.