CHENNAI: Five IAS officers, including three senior officers, of the state government appeared before the first bench of the Madras High Court led by Chief Justice KR Shriram on Thursday in connection with a contempt of court case and sought unconditional apology.
The court had pulled up the officials for disobeying its orders to relocate a school run by a Christian institution from a land belonging to the Devanatha Swamy Temple at Koothapakkam village in Cuddalore district.
As per an order of the court, the officers — P Amudha, who is presently Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue Department; S Madumathi, Secretary, Differently-Abled Welfare Department; B Chandra Mohan, Principal Secretary, School Education Department; PN Sridhar, Commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Department; and Sibi Adithya Senthil Kumar (Cuddalore Collector) — along with two other officers of HR & CE Department appeared before the court on Thursday.
They apologised to the HC for failing to comply with the order to relocate St. Joseph Matriculation Higher Secondary School functioning at Koothapakkam from the temple land. The court accepted their submission.
School’s counsel says allotted site lacks infra, located near quarries
The HC action follows a contempt petition filed by S Vinoth Raghavendran, state secretary of BJP’s Spiritual and Temple Development Wing, seeking action against the officers for not obeying the court orders. Regarding the relocation of the school, Additional Advocate General J Ravindran informed the court that 4.73 acres of land was already allotted to the school at Bhuvanagiri Taluk in Cuddalore district.
However, senior counsel Father Xavier Arul Raj, representing the school, submitted that the land was not suitable for running school as the site lacked infrastructure facilities like roads, and quarries are being operated around the place. He wanted the court to direct the government to allot land within 5-km radius of the school.
The bench directed the school management to submit a fresh representation to the government for allotment of alternative site.
A division bench in 2024 had granted six-month time to the HR&CE department to comply with another order to provide land to the school at an alternative site at Bhuvanagiri Taluk for shifting the institution. Alleging inaction, the petitioner filed the contempt plea.
Madras HC recalls Rs 1 lakh fine order
Chennai: The Madras HC recalled an order imposing Rs 1 lakh cost on J Kumaragurubaran, Chennai Corporation Commissioner, for disobeying order to crack down on building plan violations after the official appeared before the court and tendered apology