Bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh are regularly finding themselves in trouble. On Tuesday, Special Chief Secretary, Rajat Bhargava was issued a non-bailable warrant by the high court for not appearing before the court even after receiving notices.
This is in a petition filed challenging the inaction of the excise department in granting a license to a microbrewery. It is interesting to note that yesteryear actress Rambha’s brother has filed this petition after the excise department is sitting on multiple applications and representations submitted for grant of license to his microbrewery.
The petitioner reportedly invested big money to set up the microbrewery and acquired all requisite licenses. The preliminary license was given in 2019 but the final license has been not issued for the last two years causing a financial loss. The high court previously issued notices for the Special Chief Secretary to appear before it but he did not adhere to it.
Bureaucrats getting non-bailable warrants is too bad but that is happening quite frequently in Andhra Pradesh. There are some instances they are given jail terms as well. The IAS officers then, apologize to the courts and get their NBWs/jail terms struck down.
