The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday initiated suo motu contempt of court proceedings against Madurai Corporation Commissioner C. Kathiravan for continuing to collect toll from users of Inner Ring Road here in utter disobedience of an order passed by a single judge of the High Court on November 4.
Taking serious note of the issue, a Division Bench of Justices S. Tamilvanan and V.S. Ravi also directed Mr. Kathiravan to be present in the court on February 4 to explain the reasons for such disobedience. The orders were passed during the hearing of writ appeals filed by the Corporation as well as a private bus owners’ association challenging the single judge’s decision.
Disposing of a writ petition filed by the association, Justice R. Mahadevan had in November last held as illegal the quantum of money collected by the civic body since 2005 from vehicles plying through the Inner Ring Road. The judge also came down heavily upon the civic body as well as the State Government for not adhering to statutory norms before fixing the toll charges.
He quashed a notification issued by the State government on January 31, 2011 ratifying the collection of toll by the Corporation between 2005 and 2011 and directed it to issue a fresh notification in accordance with law within six weeks. “If no notification is published within six weeks, the Corporation shall not be entitled to collect the toll fee,” he ordered.
However, he refused to direct the Corporation to refund the money collected so far to the members of the bus owners association and hence they had come on appeal while the Corporation had challenged the judgement in its entirety. During the course of hearing, the Division Bench found that the State Government had not issued a notification within six weeks as directed by the single judge. Yet, the Corporation was continuing to toll in utter disobedience of court orders. Hence, the Bench chose to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the commissioner.
Press release
Within hours after the Division Bench summoned Mr. Kathiravan, the Corporation issued a press release stating that the commissioner had ordered for suspension of toll collection at the Inner Ring Road with immediate effect and that the collection would resume only after issuance of necessary notification by the State Government.
