HC initiates contempt of court proceedings against officials

The Madras High Court today initiated contempt of court proceedings against the state Chief Secretary Sheela Balakrishnan and two other bureaucrats for their failure to furnish data on backlog of vacancies for disabled persons in various government departments.
Passing interim orders on a batch of petitions, Justice S. Manikumar said "though repeatedly this court issued orders, so far out of 102 Government undertaking and boards, only 50 have furnished the details of vacancies. No clear details have been furnished by 54 companies owned and controlled by the Government."
The judge passed orders two years ago on the filling of vacancies to disabled persons and sought the vacancies department wise in A,B,C and D categories. But the department heads (HODs) have failed to furnish full details.

Taking serious note on the attitude of the officials, the judge said despite the court repeatedly issuing orders to identify the posts in A,B,C, and D Categories to fill up the posts expeditiously as possible, only 70 HODs, including those of government undertakings, have furnished the details.
The Judge said he was constrained to issue contempt of court notices to the Chief Secretary Sheela Balakrishnan, and P.Sivasankaran, Secretary and Head of Monitoring Committee of differently abled, and Manivasan, Commissioner for differently abled to explain as to why further course of action should not be taken under the Contempt of Courts Act.

The Judge also directed the High Court Registry to issue necessary statutory notices to them.
Advocate General A.L. Somayaji requested the Judge to postpone the issue of notices, as it will lead to the personal appearance of the officials. The Judge then said necessary affidavits may be filed by the officials concerned if they complied with the directions of the court and the apex court.
Even though the Court passed an order on the issue two years ago,it got utmost importance now because the Supreme Court in its recent order directed all State Governments to allocate three per cent of seats to disabled persons in all available vacancies.