CHENNAI: The first bench of the Madras High Court consisting of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, on Wednesday, convicted a tahsildhar of the Tiruvannamalai district for contempt of court for failing to comply with an earlier direction of the court to clear encroachments on a public pathway.
The judges said they would send her to jail since the earlier direction was not complied with for four years. The court said the quantum of punishment would be pronounced on August 5 and directed the officer to be present before it on that day.
The woman officer was holding tahsildhar post at Kalasapakkam Taluk when a local resident, Murugan, filed a petition in the court seeking orders to remove encroachments from a public pathway.The court, in 2017, ordered the authorities to remove the encroachments within 12 weeks.
However, the order was not honoured and a contempt petition was filed in the court.When the matter came up before the first bench of the High Court in June this year, the judges granted four weeks time to clear the encroachments, but no action was taken by the authorities.