SC warns TN officials, closes contempt case after accepting unconditional apologies

The Supreme Court has closed the contempt case against nine officials of Tamil Nadu, including former Chief Secretary K Shanmugam in a contempt case after accepting their unconditional apologies and warning them to be “careful in future and to implement directions given by a court of law promptly.” The officials, some of them have retired, were found prima facie guilty of contempt by a bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai for making some of the PWD engineers “run from pillar to post” for getting the benefit of merit-based promotion as directed by the court by a judgement in 2016.

''We have heard the contemnors personally who have expressed remorse for not implementing the directions. They have further stated that they had no intention to violate the directions issued by this court and they have immense respect for this court and the orders passed by it,'' the bench said while closing the contempt case.

The apex court, on October 1, last year, had held nine officers guilty of contempt of court for their failure to follow the order passed on January 22, 2016.

Besides the then state secretary, the other officers included M Vijayakumar, S Thinakaran, and S Swara, an IAS officer.

''Though the direction given on October 01, 2021, has been carried out in its letter and spirit, we do not appreciate the attitude of the respondents in delaying implementation of the direction issued by this Court. The petitioners have been driven from pillar to post and had to approach this court by filing repeated applications for implementation of the directions issued by this court.

“The proclivity of the respondents/contemnors to be stubborn and obdurate is deprecated. We warn the contemnors to be careful in the future and to implement directions given by a court of law promptly. With this warning, the contempt petitions are closed,'' it said in the order.

A battery of senior lawyers including Mukul Rohatgi and C S Vaidyanathan appeared for the contemnor officers and sought pardon for them.

While advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners' engineers, said that the officials be given at least a one-month jail term for making an example for the future.