A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday issued a bailable arrest warrant against A. Shainamol, Managing Director (MD), Kerala Water Authority (KWA), in a contempt of court case.
The warrant was issued as she had failed to turn up in deference to a court directive to appear in person before the Bench.
The Bench made it clear that she should be released on a self-bond of ₹25,000, if she is arrested.
The contempt proceedings were initiated against the MD on a petition by the manager of an engineering company alleging that she had failed to implement a single judge's directive to make payments to an engineering company for the works completed under JNNRUM water supply scheme. The single judge’s order came in February 17, 2016.
The empowered committee had asked the then MD to take steps to make the payment. However, the then MD filed an appeal against the single judge directive. The appeal was later dismissed. The Bench had earlier found that there was a deliberate and wilful violation of the verdict by the MD. It had also noted that despite a lapse of 10 months from the date of judgment, no action had been taken by the MG to comply with the directive.
Issuing the warrant, the Bench observed that when the court had directed her to appear before it on November 13, the case was posted to November 10 on a request of the counsel for the MD. At that time, the counsel did not mention about any difficulty in appearing before the court on November 10. But she did not appear on Friday.
‘‘There is absolutely no justification for the refusal of the MD to be present in court. Hence, we (Court) are left with no other option except to issue a bailable warrant of arrest to compel the presence of the MD in the court on November 15 at 10.15 a.m.,’’ the court said.
