Chennai, June 12 (IANS) A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday suspended the one-month simple imprisonment awarded to senior IAS officer Anshul Mishra in connection with a contempt case.

Mishra was sentenced to one month’s simple imprisonment for failing to comply with a court order in a long-standing land reconveyance case.

The bench, comprising Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan, passed interim orders while hearing an appeal filed by Mishra challenging his conviction and sentence.

The court directed the officer to deposit Rs 25,000 with the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court within three weeks, noting that the direction was without prejudice to his otherwise clean service record.

The appeal has been adjourned for further hearing on July 21. The contempt proceedings arose from a petition filed by two elderly siblings, R. Lalithambal and K.S. Viswanathan, who had been fighting for decades to retrieve their ancestral land in Chennai.

The dispute dates back to 1983 when 17 cents of their property, located along Nesapakkam Road, was acquired by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) for constructing tenements.

However, the land remained unused for an extended period. The petitioners initiated legal proceedings seeking reconveyance of the unused portion.

The government eventually reconveyed 10.5 cents but retained the remaining 6.5 cents, citing plans for road widening. This partial action forced the siblings into another round of litigation.

On November 22, 2023, Justice P. Velmurugan had directed Anshul Mishra, then serving as the Member Secretary of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), to consider the petitioners’ plea and pass appropriate orders within two months.

However, with no action taken, the siblings filed a contempt petition. The CMDA complied with the court’s directive only after the contempt plea was filed. Nonetheless, Justice Velmurugan observed that the delay, amounting to nearly two years, was unacceptable.

“This court notes with concern that such conduct by public authorities is not an isolated incident,” the judge remarked while awarding Mishra a one-month simple imprisonment term for contempt of court.

In his order, the judge had granted Mishra a one-month window to file an appeal, which led to Thursday’s interim suspension of the sentence by the Division Bench.

–IANS

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