CHENNAI: Finding that no case was made for initiating contempt of court proceedings, the Madras High Court on Tuesday closed a contempt petition against former chief secretary of Tamil Nadu Girija Vaidyanathan, filed by the incumbent Speaker of Tamil Nadu State Assembly M Appavu.
The contempt petition was filed in 2017 alleging that the State government had committed “wilful disobedience” of the court order passed in 2015 on the time-bound implementation of the third and fourth phase of the Thamirabarani-Karumeniar-Nambiar inter-linking project to take water to Radhapuram and its surrounding places.
The bench said no case for contempt of court was made. It asked the counsel for the petitioner “which order of the court was flouted” and pointed out that there was no direction and no contempt as well. The contempt of court petition was closed and the notices issued were discharged, the bench said in the order.
It may be recalled that Appavu filed the writ petition before the High Court after the AIADMK government came to power in 2011 alleging the government had put the project on the backburner. During the hearing, the Public Works Department (PWD) submitted bar charts before the court suggesting the time-bound implementation of the project and subsequently, the court passed orders. Later in 2017, he filed the contempt of court petition stating no progress was made on the implementation and disobedience of the court order was committed by the government.