CHENNAI: A practising lawyer has been sentenced to four months simple imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs 2,000, by the Madras High Court in a contempt of court case.
Justice N Sathish Kumar passed the orders on Tuesday on the contempt petition filed by P Vikas Kumar against advocate A Mohandass, belonging to BJP, for disobeying various orders of the court regarding vacating a three-floor premises in Chennai he has been occupying.
The judge said considering the nature of the violations, deliberate and wanton disobedience of the court orders with mala fide intention with all impunity, non-tendering of bona fide apology, rather filing further litigations to protract the matter which has reached finality, act of showing no remorse or repentance to his serious misconduct, the court holds that the contemnor is guilty of committing civil contempt and he is liable to be punished.
He also noted that the advocate has been committing contempt at every stage despite having given an undertaking to vacate the premises. Fine alone will not meet the ends of justice and such a person has to be sentenced to imprisonment, the judge said. He directed the court’s registry to issue warrant forthwith and directed the contemnor be detained in civil prison.
The judge also directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to initiate disciplinary action against the lawyer.
HC slaps Rs 1L fine on Chennai Corporation chief
Chennai: The first bench of the Madras High Court led by Chief Justice KR Shriram and Justice Sunder Mohan on Tuesday imposed costs of `1 lakh on the commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation for disobeying the orders of the court regarding action against deviations and violations of the building plan in Zone V of the corporation. The orders were issued on the contempt of court petition filed by advocate N Rukmangathan, a former GCC councillor, seeking action against the commissioner for disobedience of an order passed in 2022 regarding deviations in building constructions. The bench directed the state to recover the costs from the commissioner and pay the amount to the cancer institute at Adyar.