Madurai
After a petitioner had to file a fresh writ petition to remind authorities to act on an earlier direction of the court, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday observed that it was unfortunate that scant respect was given by the respondent officials to an order passed by the court.
The court was hearing a petition filed by M. Lakshmi of Tiruvadanai, Ramanathapuram district, who sought a direction to Revenue officials to survey her patta land at Kanattankadu village and fix boundaries.
The property was allocated to her under a special scheme. Subsequently, patta for the land was obtained by the petitioner. Following a boundary dispute with her neighbour, she sent a representation to Revenue officials, seeking measurement of her land.
With the representation not being acted upon, she filed a petition in 2015, seeking a direction to measure the land to identify the boundaries. Though the court had directed that the representation be considered within a period of 12 weeks, the officials failed to comply with the order.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar observed that the trend of not complying with order of the court was growing. This act on the part of officials needed to be deprecated and the present case demonstrated the recklessness and carelessness of officials.
The High Court directed the Revenue officials to survey the petitioner’s land and pass a final order within four weeks. Failing to comply with the order, the court said suo motu contempt proceedings would be initiated against the erring officials. The case was posted for reporting compliance on August 13.
