: Madras High Court today slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on Tamil Nadu Housing Board which forced a woman to file three petitions and two contempt petitions to get compensation for land acquired by it 22 years back.
Justice S Manikumar while doing so said petitioner R Rukmani would have been able to purchase 13 sovereigins of gold if the compensaton of Rs 41,864 had been paid to her long time back. The petitioner may not be able to get even two sovereigns of gold nowadays with this amount, he said.
For the delay, disobedience and mental agony faced by her he slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on the TNHB.
The matter relates to acquisition of her 4,800 square foot land in Sholinganallur in 1993 by the Board. As no compensation was paid, she moved the High Court in 2002, which directed TNHB to consider her application and take action.
The Special Tahsildar, in his counter affidavit, said the compensation amount had already deposited in a local court.
Rukmani moved the court again in 2011 as the amount was not deposited. The Court once more directed the authorities concerned to consider her request within six weeks.
As there was no response from the authorities even for this order, she filed a contempt petition.
The Special Tahsilldar in his reply said verification of her land was pending, but the petitioner said that when she checked the records, she found that the survey number of the plot of land mentioned by Tahsildar was not of her
She again filed a petition in 2013 seeking to settle her compensation after describing all these details.
The Court then directed the Tahsildar to pay the compensation of Rs 41,864 with a cost of Rs 10,000 to her.
Rukmani again sent two representations to the authorities to comply with the order, but the amount was not disbursed.
So she filed the present contempt petition. When the Court issued notice on January 2015 on this petition, TNHB s paid the amount in February.
In his counter, the Tahsildar alleged that immediately after the previous order, TNHB has written to the Government Pleader to obtain his opinion and received a reply only after 10 months and several reminders.
Refusing to take note of this, the judge said Rukmini had to approach this court at every stage.Instead of taking prompt action, TNHB and the Tahsildar had tried to blame the GP. She had suffered mental agony for the past 22 years to get the compensation. "Though there was no intentional disobedience by the Board, it has to pay Rs 25,000 for the hardship suffered by the petitioner," the judge said.
