The PIL bench of the High Court at Hyderabad comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice SV Bhatt held an ‘in-camera’ session on the case relating to the state government (Telangana) granting Rs 15 lakh to an IAS officer who was fighting a defamation case.



The bench was dealing with two separate public interest writ petitions filed by Vatsala Vidya Sagar, a social activist and K Eshwar Rao. K Eshwar Rao questioned the action of the state government in granting Rs 15 lakh to IAS officer Smita Sabharwal . The IAS officer had filed a defamation case against the English magazine Outlook .