MADURAI: Criticising the construction of a public toilet in a waterbody in Seelayampatti village in Theni despite an interim injunction by the court, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed the Theni collector to recover the construction expenses of the now-demolished toilet from the officials responsible for the illegal construction.
A Bench of justices SM Subramaniam and R Vijayakumar gave the direction while closing a contempt petition filed by one F Apsana Parveen, on whose petition the court had ordered the interim injunction against the construction. Since the construction activities, which were undertaken by the panchayat president, continued even after the court's order, Parveen had moved the contempt plea.
However, when the contempt plea came up for hearing, the additional advocate general informed the court that the toilet was demolished. Recording this, the judges closed the contempt plea. Further noting that the construction activities continued when the interim order was in force and that the construction costs need to be paid from the public funds, they directed the Theni collector to conduct an inquiry and fix responsibility on the officials concerned and recover the construction cost from the said officials, within three months.