MADURAI: Criticising the high court registry for refusing to number many contempt petitions due to expiry of the limitation period, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently observed that overshooting of limitation alone cannot be ground to reject a contempt petition during filing. The same would amount to divesting the court of its power to hear those cases, the court said.
Justice M Dhandapani, who made the observations, directed the Registry to get permission from the acting chief justice and circulate the order copy among the Registry staff to ensure that the contempt petitions are numbered and placed before the court for hearing, even if there arises any question of limitation, so that the court could deal with the same at the time of hearing.
The order was passed recently in a contempt petition filed by P Rajan against Poongothai, who was the joint director of health services in Dindigul, over delay in compliance with an order passed by the court on April 27, 2018, in connection with re-fixation of his pension and retirement benefits.