Taken a serious view of the attitude of the authorities in showing scant respect to orders of the court, the Madras high court has issued statutory notice to the director of town and country planning, to appear before the court on January 21, 2019, in connection with a contempt of court case.
 
Justice R.Suresh Kumar issued the statutory notice on a contempt petition filed by S.Anand.
 
Originally, the town and country planning department prepared a scheme for formation of 80 and 60 feet road in Coimbatore and a portion of the land measuring 23.98 acres belonging to the petitioner was earmarked for the scheme.
 
Though the master plan was approved in 1994 no development took place as per the plan till 2000. Therefore, he filed a petition to direct the authorities to release his land.
 
The judge had on December 2, 2016, directed authorities to release the land to the petitioner within four weeks. However, the authorities failed to comply with the order.
 
Hence, the petitioner filed the present contempt petition.
 
When the contempt petition came up for hearing last week, a communication from the deputy director, commissioner of town and country planning was placed before the court by the government pleader stating that the director of town and country planning decided to prefer intra-court appeal against the December 2, 2016, order.
 
Taking a serious view of the attitude of the officials, the judge said it was a known fact that only 30 days time was available for the parties to prefer an intra-court appeal.
 
While that being so, what action the authorities have taken in pursuance of the order, passed by this court on December 2, 2016, has not been spelt out.
 
This kind of attitude, showing scant respect to the orders of this court, of late, was growing, and such a trend being followed by the official side of the administrative wing of the state, cannot be approved by the judiciary.
 
In view of the above, this court has no hesitation to issue
statutory notice to the above official to appear before the court on January 21, 2019, the judge added.
 
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