Madras HC takes note of authorities’ failure to comply with Court Orders

In an order passed today, the Madras High Court has issued directions with a view to tackling the apparent apathy demonstrated by government officials in complying with court orders..A Division Bench comprising of Justices KK Sasidharan and P Velmurugan noted that parties commonly wait for contempt petitions to be initiated before they are pushed to comply with court orders..It was remarked that contempt petitions have thus essentially assumed the character of execution petitions..“We found from our experience that the concerned officials would not obey the orders passed by the Courts till contempt petition is filed. The contempt petitions are filed more like execution petitions. Even an order issuing Mandamus for consideration of the representation is kept pending for years together. The process of consideration of representation would commence only when notice is received by the Officer in the contempt petition.”.The apparent apathy of authorities in this regard was particularly emphasised on..“The authorities are not sensitive to the issue and the result is filing of contempt petitions as a routine measure. The Court is compelled to spend considerable time even to decide the contempt petitions”.The Court noted that the tendency is particularly prevalent in Tamil Nadu..“This is a very peculiar feature in the State of Tamil Nadu. We are informed that in the neighbouring state of Kerala, there is no pendency of contempt petition at all.”.It further observed that there are several other tactics frequently employed to avoid obeying court orders, including, filing review petitions after the dismissal of the Special Leave Petitions and Review Petitions by the Supreme Court..Holding that there should be finality to litigation, the Court has directed the government take appropriate measures to resolve the mounting issue..“We direct the Registrar (Judicial) to furnish the details of the contempt petitions to the learned Advocate General so as to enable him to forward it to the Chief Secretary to Government, Government of Tamil Nadu..The Chief Secretary, is directed to issue Circulars to all the departments for time bound compliance of the order passed by the Court. She should also convene periodical meetings to ascertain the factual position and to issue necessary instructions to stream line the system.”.Read Order below.