HC slaps ₹25k fine on edu dept over 250-day delay in appeal | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: Observing that “unless the fine amount is recovered from somebody’s salary, they (officials concerned) will not feel the pain and next time they will be more alert,” the Telangana High Court on Friday imposed a ₹25,000 fine on the education department.A division bench comprising acting chief justice P Sam Koshy and Justice Nandikonda Narsing Rao passed the direction while hearing the department’s appeal challenging a single-judge order that ruled in favour of a deceased employee.The bench was dealing with an appeal challenging a Sept 2025 order of the single judge who directed the education department to immediately absorb a deceased employee into grant-in-aid vacancies from his initial date of appointment.A grant-in-aid vacancy refers to a job that receives partial or full financial assistance (salary grants) from the state or central govt.The bench further directed the principal secretary, education department, to “inquire into the reasons for the delay and if necessary recover the fine amount from the concerned officials.”In its appeal, the department urged the court to condone the 250-day delay in challenging the single-judge order and urged the suspension of the order.Hearing the matter, the division bench asked why there was a long delay in moving the appeal. When the counsel for the education department informed the court that the delay was due to vacation, the bench asked if the officials concerned were on such a long vacation.Further, on the condition that they would hear the appeal on payment of a fine, the bench directed a ₹50,000 fine to be paid to the Telangana State Legal Services Authority within two weeks. However, on request from the counsel, the bench reduced the fine to ₹25,000.“It won’t be right to impose smaller fines on the mighty state,” said the bench in a lighter vein when the counsel sought further reduction of the fine amount. The bench further set aside the single-judge order and adjourned the appeal for further hearing.