CHENNAI: The Finance Department has issued instructions to all departments to submit a list of court cases where the departments have failed to take action, either to comply or file writ appeals, following the judgments passed by the Supreme Court or the high court.The lists are to be submitted before February 7.
It is learnt that the finance secretary is likely to conduct a review meeting with secretaries and heads of departments on the issue shortly.
Official sources said in a number of cases, there has been a delay by the departments to comply or to file writ appeals within the stipulated time.
Sources also said there have been instructions sent to all the departments that all pre-contempt notices should be responded within a time-frame of one week upon receipt of the judgment.
According to data available through the Court Case Monitoring System, till December 31, 2024, a total of 279 contempt cases are pending in the health and family welfare department, while higher education department has 26 contempt cases pending.
Similarly, environment, climate change and forest has 26 contempt cases pending. The school education department has 166 contempt cases pending.
It was also found that 1,353 writ petitions are pending in Madras High Court pertaining to Home Department (till December 2024) and in which counter has not been filed in 451 cases for more than eight weeks. Similarly, of the 948 writ petitions of the higher education department pending in Madras High Court, 341 counter affidavits have not been filed for more than eight weeks.