Contempt: Jail term awarded to ex-Madurai Corpn Commissioner

Justice M V Muralidharan who delivered the order in Chennai after reserving the same at the circuit bench in Madurai, said, “ The Commissioner, not only committed contempt, but also his conduct proved that he abused the process of Court by flouting and disobeying the orders of this Court.”

“If the act of the Commissioner is condoned and if he is allowed to go without any punishment, it will set a bad precedence and many will think of flouting the orders of this Court, which cannot be permitted,” he added.

The case pertains to a letter issued by Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department on August 27, 2013, which paved way for promotion of Revenue Assistants and Junior Assistants as per inter-se-seniority list.

This was challenged by one Ahamed Ibrahim and a single judge on October 10, 2016 upheld the said circular and directed the Commissioner to give promotion to the present petitioner J Vijayakumar and three others on a par with their juniors within four weeks. Even as the order was not implemented despite issue of legal notice, Ahmed Ibrahim moved an appeal seeking to quash the single judge’s order. But a division bench, which heard the appeal, declined to grant any interim stay.

Thereafter, Vijayakumar moved a contempt petition on January 23, 2017, which was closed citing the pending appeal. However, the contempt plea was reopened on July 10, 2018 based on a Supreme Court order that contempt proceedings will lie if there is no stay on the appeal. In the meanwhile, the division bench hearing the appeal also upheld the circular and directed the Commissioner to redraw the inter-se-seniority list within four weeks. Justice Muralidharan on noting that both the single judge and division bench had upheld the validity of the circular dated August 23, 2013, said, “Even after the division bench order, the Commissioner had not complied with the order of this court in letter and spirit. However, they are attempting to inform this court by issuing one order after another that they had complied with the order while this court can easily understand that Corporation has been preparing seniority list for the post of assistant alone while ignoring Revenue Assistant and Junior Assistant.” The judge while sentencing the commissioner to a week also held that if the fine amount of Rs 5,000 is not paid within a week, the contemnor should undergo simple imprisonment for a further period of one week.