Tamil Nadu bureaucrats under fire in Madras High Court

Chennai: A contempt petition filed against three top bureaucrats has reached its final stages in the Madras high court with the first bench warning the state environment and forest secretary, Hans Raj Verma, principal chief conservator of forests, Vinod Kumar and district forest officer (Tirupathur Division), H Rajamohan of “conviction” for wilfully disobeying three court orders.

The officials appeared before the court when the contempt petition filed by sandalwood products export company, Gupta Enterprises, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh came up for hearing. The officers have not complied with three court orders, including a verdict of the Supreme Court. Further, they have also failed to hand over sandalwood weighing 35 metric tons back to the company.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, said, “we grant two weeks’ time to comply with the order as a last opportunity, failing which there will be no option but to pass the formal order of conviction and sentence,”In the contempt petition Gupta Enterprises submitted 16 years ago, the company took part in an auction for procuring 35 metric tons of sandalwood stored at Tirupathur forest department in Vellore district. In October 1999, the auction was finalised for Rs 1.09 crore. Soon, the company paid Rs23 lakh.

The company obtained sales tax exemption for exportable commodity. However, before securing the sandalwood, the officials sought company to sales tax. The company pointed out that it won a similar tender in Sathyamangalam without paying sale tax. Subsequently, in April 2000, the government announced that the company had forfeited its deposit of Rs 22 lakh. The company filed a writ petition before Madras high court. The company won its case in Madras High court and later in a division bench and finally in Supreme Court in 2014. Despite three court orders, the officials had not handed over the consignment and the company filed contempt proceedings. However, the government had filed review petition before the apex court, which was dismissed at the initial stage.

Angered over the disobeying of orders, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam said, "As on date, there can be no doubt that the officers are clearly in breach and violation of the orders of the court, and the question really is of sentence." The bench directed them appear before the court in the next hearing.  The bench said this would be subject to any order obtained by the officers in the Supreme Court before August 4.