The Madras High Court on Monday dispensed with the personal appearance of former Chennai Collector J. Vijaya Rani in suo motu contempt of court proceedings initiated against her after Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran informed the court that she was on election duty in another State.
Justice P. Velmurugan accepted the submission made by the AAG and directed the IAS officer to appear before the court on December 11. The suo motu contempt was initiated against her for having violated a Supreme Court order while dealing with arbitration proceedings in a land acquisition matter.
The issue related to acquisition of lands for widening National Highway 47. The judge found the former Collector had passed orders on January 24, 2022 in the arbitration proceedings initiated by those whose lands had been acquired in violation of an interim stay granted by the Supreme Court in 2018.
On Monday, the judge told the AAG it had come to his notice that several other such orders had been passed by other former Collectors too and therefore directed the Project Director of NHAI to file a report on December 11 listing out the number of such orders passed in violation of the Supreme Court directive.
