CHENNAI: Sixty-one contempt petitions are pending against various units which come under the Housing and Urban Development Department, according to information available with Express. As per the information available, the cases which date back to 2012 have maximum petitions pending against the Slum Clearance Board and the Tamil Nadu Housing Board.
It is learnt from official sources that the government has sent notices to Slum Clearance Board, Commissioner of Town and Country Planning, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Tamil Nadu Housing Board, Registrar of Cooperative Societies and chairman of Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority to either comply with the orders of the court or file writ appeal, review petition or time extension application.
This comes in the wake of the Tamil Nadu government yet to file counter-affidavits for 3,447 cases despite setting up court case monitoring system (CCMS), an IT-based application to monitor cases pending against the state government department or officials. The state Chief Secretary, at a recent meeting, has asked all secretaries to take effective steps to file the counter-affidavits at the earliest.
It is learnt that of the 61 contempt petitions, 15 are pending against Slum Clearance Board and more than 20 petitions against State Housing Board while the remaining pertain to Directorate of Town and Country Planning and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.
In 2016, the state government asked various departments to submit a list of pending contempt cases filed before the principal bench and the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court. It was brought to the notice of the Madras High Court that approximately 1,447 contempt petitions are pending before single bench and 179 cases relate to the division bench. As per figures available with the Madras High Court Registry (2016), of the nearly 1447 pending cases, 1,247 cases pertain to orders passed by judges who have demitted office while 200 are other cases.
Demitted from office
As per figures available with the Madras HC Registry (2016), of nearly 1447 pending cases, 1,247 pertain to orders passed by judges who have demitted office.