HC accepts Tahsildar's apology, detains her in court till eve

CHENNAI: The first bench of the Madras High Court on Friday accepted the unconditional apology tendered by the Tiruvannamalai district Tahsildar and meted out a lenient punishment of detaining her in the court hall till the rising of the judges in the evening and did not put her behind bars, as warned earlier.

The bench of Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy on August 2 had castigated the Tiruvannamalai district administration, more particularly the then Tahsildar, for not implementing its earlier orders relating to removal of encroachments, passed four years ago.

The court will not hesitate even to put the Tahsildar behind prison for contempt of court, the bench had said, while passing interim orders on a contempt application from M Murugan. The bench had directed the Tahsildar to appear before it today, to decide the quantum of sentence of imprisonment.

Accordingly, Tahsildar Lalitha appeared before the bench today and tendered an unconditional apology. On behalf of the government it was assured that the 2017 orders of the court to remove the encroachments on a public road in Kadaladi will be executed in three weeks.

Taking a lenient view, the bench directed her to sit in the court hall till it winds up its proceedings in the evening.