MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed an order passed by a single judge of the court imposing two weeks simple imprisonment on the administrator of TN Transport Corporation Retired Employees Pension Trust and the managing director of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) - Kumbakonam division, for failing to disburse pending terminal benefits of two retired employees. The order of punishment was stayed the same day it was passed.
A bench comprising justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy passed the interim order on the appeals filed by the two officials. The judges observed that the transport corporation had preferred appeals against the order directing payment of terminal benefits and the said appeals were supposed to be listed on Tuesday for hearing.
Unfortunately, the appeals were not listed and in the meantime, the single judge imposed the above punishment in the contempt petitions, they noted. They ordered an interim stay against the punishment and adjourned the matter to April 1.
The single judge had observed that the government had moved the appeals after a delay of 127 days, only in an attempt to defeat the contempt proceedings.