Madras High Court sentences senior IAS officer to one-month simple imprisonment in contempt case

The legal battle

According to the siblings, who had filed the present contempt plea, 17 cents of their land abutting Nesapakkam Road in Chennai was acquired in 1983 for constructing Tamil Nadu Housing Board tenements. However, when the land was not utilised for long, the petitioners initiated a legal battle seeking reconveyance of the property.

Pursuant to a writ petition filed in 2003, followed by contempt proceedings, about 10.5 cents of the land was reconveyed to them but the rest of 6.5 cents was retained for the purpose of widening the Nesapakkam Road. Again, the siblings kickstarted a second round of litigation to get back the remaining property.

Disposing of their second writ petition on November 22, 2023, Justice Velmurugan had directed the CMDA Member Secretary to consider the couple’s plea and pass appropriate orders within two months. However, since the order was not complied with, the siblings filed the present contempt plea in August 2024.

The petitioners’ counsel told the court the 2023 order was not complied with until Mr. Mishra was transferred from CMDA to the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board in February 2025. His successor in CMDA rejected the petitioners’ plea, for reconveyance, on February 28, 2025.