Notice ordered in contempt case

The Madras High Court has ordered notice, returnable in four weeks, in a contempt case against the Director of Elementary Education (DEE), Chennai.

In his order, Justice K.N. Basha stated that it was very unfortunate to note that in spite of a High Court order on June 23, K. Devarajan had taken three adjournments and there was no response from him. Considering the fact that the authorities were said to have passed an order dated May 14 that was directly contrary to the court's direction of March this year, the court was constrained to issue statutory notice to the respondent. Earlier, passing orders on petitions filed by R. Saravanan and two others, working as Secondary Grade Teacher, the court, in March this year, had directed the elementary education authorities to enter the additional qualification of the three who had been conferred the B.Ed degree by SASTRA University, Distance Education Course, Thanjavur, in their service registers.

Later, Sastra University filed a contempt petition seeking to punish the official for disobeying the court order. It also filed an application seeking to stay the DEE's order of May 14. The court had ordered notice.

G. Rajagopalan, senior counsel for the university, submitted that the Director of Elementary Education had passed an order dated May 14 contrary to the specific direction given by the court to enter the additional qualification of B. Ed degree of the three persons in their service registers.

The authorities said the degrees obtained from the university could not entitle the degree holders to get jobs.

Following this, the court granted interim stay of the DEE's order.