Jail IAS officers flouting court orders, HC tells Tamil Nadu govt

CHENNAI: IAS officers flouting court orders should face imprisonment primarily, and other punishments such as contempt proceedings or fine should only be secondary punishment, the Madras high court has held.
Issuing a stern warning to the state bureaucrats notorious for non-compliance of court rulings, Justice S Vaidyanathan said, “If the äuthority is an IAS officer and he/she has disobeyed the orders of this court, they should be punished with imprisonment and imposition of fine under the Contempt of Courts Act will be secondary, and the imprisonment should be primary...”
The judge, passing orders on a farmer’s plea on patta entries, also pointed out that of late, several cases had been filed for ‘disposal of applications’ pending with officials.
“If those applications are disposed of by the authorities concerned in time, the parties need not unnecessarily approach this court for such specific directions. It is not known as to why an order of the court is required for the authorities to do their job... for which salary is provided to them,” Justice Vaidyanathan added.
It is made clear that the time limit specified in law must be adhered to in disposing of the applications, failing which the authorities concerned will have to face departmental proceedings for their misdemeanor/ deviant/ misconduct, dereliction of duty, lack of devotion to work and lack of integrity, so as to deprive them of their entire terminal benefits, which will be an eye-opener for others not to follow the errant officials, said Justice Vaidyanathan.
The outcome of the departmental proceedings must be entered in the service register of the official concerned, the court said.
Justice Vaidyanathan gave one-month ultimatum for the government to issue a government order/ circular by fixing the time limit for disposal of applications.
As for the plea moved by Mathavadiyan to direct revenue divisional officer of Tenkasi to dispose his appeal under the Patta Passbook Act, relating to a property he had purchased in Ambasamudram taluk, Justice Vaidyanathan said, “It is made clear that if any application is filed under the Tamil Nadu Patta Pass Book Act, for modification of entries in the patta, it shall have to be decided within 120 days from the date of receipt of application. If there is any appeal, it has to be disposed of within 90 days and revision within 60 days.”