Officials warned of contempt for ignoring order in NH land case

CHENNAI: Taking a serious view of officials disregarding its order directing them to deposit the compensation amount for the land taken over for Chennai-Bengaluru National Highway works with the High Court Registrar and instead granting Rs 39 crore to people who submitted forged documents as if they were the original land owners, the Madras High Court said it would initiate contempt proceedings against the officials.

Justice R Suresh Kumar said this after noting that the authorities granted compensation despite the court passing an order in February 2020 directing the officials to deposit the compensation amount in a nationalised bank in favour of the Registrar.

The 2020 order was passed in a petition filed by one Rajendran, a landowner who surrendered his land in Sriperumbudur taluk for the national highway project. A few persons created bogus documents for Rajendran’s lands and furnished them to the revenue officials for getting the compensation amount, Rajendran moved the High Court with a petition seeking to restrain the district administration from sanctioning the compensation.

However, despite the injunction passed by the court in this regard, the authorities granted the compensation to those who submitted bogus documents. Following this, the petitioner filed a contempt petition.

While hearing the petition, the judge expressed his dissatisfaction against officials for granting the compensation despite the court orders. “Why are contempt proceedings not being initiated against the officers for not complying with the court orders,” the judge asked.

Responding to it, the State government submitted that it had recovered about Rs 39 crore from the illegal beneficiaries and the CB-CID was proceeding with the investigation into the case. Recording the submission, the judge directed the officials to submit an affidavit in this connection.

The court also summoned the then DRO (land acquisition) Narmada, who gave the compensation, to appear in person on the next hearing scheduled on January 25.