CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday asked the State government to remove Anshul Mishra, member-secretary, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), from his post immediately and ordered a bailable warrant against him for non-compliance with its order in a land reclassification case and failing to appear before it.
First Bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy directed the Chennai police commissioner to execute the warrant to secure the presence of the contemnor (Anshul Mishra) in the court on March 25. “Let a bailable warrant for Rs.50,000 be issued on him to be caused through Commissioner of Police, Chennai," the bench ruled before posting the matter to March 25.
The ruling comes on a contempt petition filed by Girish PK last year after CMDA officials failed to reclassify the land located at EVP Township at Tharapakkam near Chennai from institutional zone to residential zone following the denotification of certain areas including Tharapakkam, Gerugampakkam, Kolapakkam and Manapakkam situated north of Adyar River by the Airport Authority of India.
A technical committee of the CMDA perused the matter and had recommended reclassification of the said land with the condition of leaving 500 metres from the river bank as buffer zone before carrying out developmental activities. In its order, dated March 6, 2020, a division bench of the high court had directed the CMDA to carry out the reclassification within four months.
On March 3, 2022, the bench granted time till March 15 to CMDA to comply with the order and directed the member-secretary to appear before it in case of non-compliance. The order was not complied with and the officer didn't appear before the court. Furious over this, the CJ on Tuesday told Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram to remove the officer from his current posting, and warned of severe action if it was not done.
In another contempt of court case regarding non-compliance of an order for disposing of an appeal made under section 80A of Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, two senior IAS officers --- Rajesh Lakhoni, Chairman and Managing Director of Tangedco, and D Karthikeyan, Principal Secretary to Higher Education department --- appeared before the same bench. Both had occupied top posts in CMDA and Greater Chennai Corporation during the relevant period. The bench warned them that they would be sent to jail for contempt for failing to comply with its orders.