HC slaps contempt against home secy

Chennai: The Madras high court has initiated contempt proceedings against state home secretary, additional director general of prisons and superintendent of prison, Central prison, Puzhal,  for their failure to comply with its earlier order, which dir­ected them to pass appropriate orders for the release of a life convict. A division bench comprising Justices S. Rajeswaran and P. N. Prakash directed the registry to issue statutory not­ices to the three officials.

Passing orders on a HCP filed by S. Mallika, seeking release of her son S. Ilango, the bench said despite the order passed by the court on November 13 the same has not been complied with. Therefore, instead of filing a contempt petition, the petitioner has opted to file the present HCP for the same prayer.

Additional public prosecutor filed a counter affidavit by the superintendent of prison, which stated that he app­ears to have forwarded the judg­ment copy along with office letter to the ADGP/IG of prisons to address the go­v­­ernment to issue ne­c­essa­­ry order for the rele­as­e of the prisoner and that th­­ey were awaiting app­rop­riate orders from the gov­er­n­ment.

Therefore, he pra­ye­d for time. “Highly dissatisfied with the conduct of the respondents, we are forced to issue contempt notice as against the home secretary, who is the competent authority to pass appropriate orders according to superintende­nt of prisons.

It is needless to add that when an order is passed by the cou­rt, as early as on Nove­mber 13 after hearing the additional public prosecutor, who represents the respondents, there is no justification on the part of the respondent police to await orders of the government. The order of the court should be complied with in letter and spirit without any hesitation,” the bench said.