Holding that it was the duty of the court to enforce implementation of its order, the Madras High Court has sentenced the head of a cooperatives society to two weeks’ imprisonment for committing contempt by not implementing its directions.
The matter pertains to reinstatement of V Thirulokachander as secretary of the Government Telecommunication Employees Cooperative Society. In 2005, he was suspended from the post following a conviction by a lower court under the SC/ST Act. But an interim order of the High Court, in a writ petition, allowed him to continue in his post. This was not obeyed by the society.
Meanwhile, Thirulokachander got his conviction set aside in an appeal. In 2011, the HC quashed his suspension and ordered that he be reinstated within two weeks time. An appeal by the society against the order was dismissed by a division bench of the High Court as well as the apex court.
After this, Thirulokachander was reinstated as secretary-II of the society in place of secretary-I, the post he originally held. Therefore, he filed the current contempt petition.
Passing orders, Justice T Raja said, “For proper administration of justice, it is also the duty of the court to enforce its own order. Otherwise, the person in whose favour the order.. is passed will be not only losing his confidence in the court for having approached it for justice, but the entire proceedings will be rendered meaningless,” the judge said and sentenced Veeraraghavan to two weeks’ imprisonment with a fine of `2,000.