HC summons chief secretary for contempt of court

TNN | Nov 7, 2017, 00:02 IST

Chennai: Noting that the court should not be at the mercy of the state for implementation of its orders, Madras high court summoned Tamil Nadu chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan of and three other secretaries at 10.30am on November 7. A division bench ordered the presence of the top officials in connection with a contempt of court plea.

The issue pertains to orders passed by a division bench directing the authorities to re-convey unused land acquired by the state for establishing Koyambedu whole sale market.

Pointing out that the authorities had failed to comply with the order which was confirmed by the apex court, a division bench of Justice K K Sasidharan and Justice P Velmurugan said: "This would lead to litigants bank upon extra-constitutional authorities to redress their grievance rather coming to court."

The courts are flooded with contempt petitions, the judges said, adding: "We are not aware as to whether the chief secretary is in know of things with respect to this sorry state of affairs."

The other secretaries summoned are — Dharmendra Pratap Yadav, the then secretary to housing and urban development department, Vijaya Rajkumar, member secretary CMDA, S Krishnan, currently principal secretary housing and urban development department.