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The Madras high court recently held that IAS officers flouting court orders should be punished primarily with imprisonment and fine charges for contempt of court should only be secondary. The bench of Justice S. Vaidyanathan held that imposition of a fine for contempt of court is secondary and imprisonment of the accused is primary.
The judge was hearing a farmers plea o direct the revenue divisional officer of Tenkasi to dispose of his appeal under the Patta Passbook Act, for correction of patta entries n connection to a property he had purchased. The bench noted that the cases which are filed before the court under section 10 to 13 of the act and if those applications are disposed of in time then the parties need not approach the authorities. The bench said that. it is not known as to why an order of the Court is required for the Authorities to do their job as adumbrated under the Act, for which salary is pr provided to them.
Further, if any verification is required then they may go and do it physically at the spot. In the case of grant of compensation to a victim, one of the judge had done an on the spot inspection to satisfy his conscience. Justice Vaidyanathan very well made it clear that the time limit must be made clear not owing to which the Authorities under the Act will have to face departmental proceedings for their misconduct and lack of determination to work. The judge said that this would be an eye-opener for others who did not follow the proceedings. It was noted, "the authorities mentioned supra does not have a superpower and they should conduct such inspections if required, as otherwise, they are unfit to hold the post and they should be shown the doors". Thus, the court held that such flouting of orders will be directly punished with imprisonment the duration of which would be decided on the circumstances and facts.
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