Supreme Court dismissed the Appeal of the State Government (desirous of painting Panchayat Buildings in their party colours) and held as follows,
State of AP Vs Suryadevara Venkata Rao on 03 June 2020We have examined the matter carefully. We are of the opinion that the judgment of the High Court does not warrant interference. There is no ambiguity in the direction issued by the High Court by its judgment dated 10.03.2020 that any colour which is similar to the flag of any political party should not be used for painting the Gram Panchayat buildings.
We are not in agreement with Mr. Narasimha that the Writ Petition was premature. As the grievance was that G.O. Nos. 622 and 623 dated 23.04.2020 were issued in gross violation of its earlier judgment, the High Court committed no error in adjudicating the dispute raised in the Writ Petition. The directions issued by the High Court in the judgment dated 10.03.2020 are clear and unambiguous. The High Court is right in holding that the respondents have made a deliberate attempt in circumventing the directions issued on 10.03.2020. Executive orders are subjected to judicial review and the judgments of the courts which have become final should be followed by compliance of the directions given therein. Any attempt to disobey the directions issued by courts would be subversive to the Rule of Law. Public confidence in the judiciary will be eroded if its orders are not obeyed.
As the judgment dated 10.03.2020 in Writ Petition No.117 of 2019 has attained finality, the directions given by the High Court have to be complied with. We approve the findings of the High Court that G.O. Nos. 622 and 623 dated 23.04.2020 were issued only to avoid compliance of the directions issued in Writ Petition No.117 of 2019.
Therefore, we direct the respondents to remove the existing colours on the Gram Panchayat buildings in compliance of the directions issued by the High Court by its judgment dated 10.3.2020 within a period of four weeks from today. As we have extended time for compliance of the directions in the judgment dated 10.03.2020, the contempt proceedings initiated by the High Court are closed.
AP High Court judgment is here.
A complete indexed and mess-wise segregated collection of reprimands received by this incumbent State Government of YSRC Party are here.
