The Madras high court has directed Sheela Balakrishnan, additional chief secretary, municipal administration and water supply, Ajay Yadav, Vellore district collector and M. Seeni Ajmal Khan, Vellore city corporation commissioner to appear before it on April 2 in connection with a contempt of court case.
Justice S. Nagamuthu gave the directive on a petition from North Arcot District Co-operative Supply and Marketing Society Employees Union (NADCSMSEU), Virupatchipuram in Vellore.
“The events showed that the three officials had prima facie committed contempt of the earlier order of this court. Therefore, I am impelled to issue statutory contempt notice to them,” the judge said.
In 1999, the state government had issued a G.O to acquire land belonging to the Vellore District Consumer’s Co-operative Wholesale Stores Limited (VDCCWSL) for constructing a new bus stand. NADCSMSEU filed petitions challenging this order. However, the Vellore District Consumer’s Stores and the municipality said that they had no objection to the takeover of the land.
On April 12, 2001, the court had directed the government to invoke the emergency provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, take possession of the land, construct the bus stand and pay compensation to the land owner.
However, the government took the land only on lease basis and constituted a committee headed by Vellore collector to work out the compensation amount. Possession was taken in 2005 and the bus stand was constructed. However, no compensation was paid to the land owner.
Hence, a petition was filed in 2005. As the case suffered enormous delay due to several adjournments for the past six years and the officials concerned showed no interest, the judge said he was forced to issue the contempt notice.