CHENNAI: The TN government has set a March 15 deadline for all departments to either comply with court directions or file appeals in the contempt cases against the respective departments pending in the High Court.
This was decided at the meeting of all secretaries held on February 26. The meeting was chaired by the Chief Secretary.
It is learnt that the Chief Secretary had directed the heads of departments to dispose of the cases by either filing appeal or compliance report.
This comes after information elicited through the Right to Information Act stated that more than 20,000 contempt of court petitions are pending against Tamil Nadu government officials in the Madras High Court and the Madurai Bench between 2010 and February 16, 2014. The information under RTI Act, which was provided by Deputy Registrar (administration) of the Madras High Court, reveals that the Madras High Court had 12,527 petitions of contempt of court pending against government officials while the Madurai Bench has a total of 8,475 contempt of court cases pending against the officials.
The Chief Secretary has told the officials that wherever information pertaining to contempt of court is not available, it should be intimated to the Registry of Madras High court and data be obtained from the registry without any further delay.
Sources revealed that the Housing Secretary had planned to conduct a review meeting on all pending contempt cases on Thursday. It is learnt that more than 15 contempt of court cases involving the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority was pending in the Madras High Court.