MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently directed four authorities, including the school education secretary, to appear before it on July 19, in a contempt petition filed over non-compliance of an order passed by the court in 2012 to regularise job and grant monetary benefits to a sweeper, who worked in a teacher training institute in Tirunelveli.
The petitioner, P Gnana Pragasam (74), was working as a sweeper-cum-gardener in a teacher training institute in Palayapettai. After putting in a total service of 40 years and five months, he retired on June 30, 2006, he added. Though the state government issued a G.O. in 1971 that all contingent employees who had completed five years of service should be regularised, the G.O. was not implemented uniformly across all departments and institutions, he alleged. While the proposal sent by the institute to regularise him was rejected by the government, it regularised similarly-placed persons hailing from other institutions, he claimed, and approached the High Court in 2007.
Allowing the petition on December 3, 2012, the court directed the government to regularise the petitioner and grant him all monetary benefits within two months. But even after a lapse of several years, the authorities have not complied with the order, following which the petitioner moved a contempt petition in 2020.
Hearing the contempt petition recently, Justice Battu Devanand observed that he is prima facie satisfied that the authorities -- school education secretary, director of teacher education research and training, principal of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), and correspondent of the institute concerned -- wilfully disobeyed the court's order. He, therefore, directed the registry to issue a statutory notice to the four authorities, directing them to appear before the court in person during the next hearing on July 19.