Anshul Mishra. File
| Photo Credit: S. James
A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday (June 12, 2025) suspended the sentence of one-month simple imprisonment imposed by a single judge on Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anshul Mishra after finding him guilty of contempt of court.
The Bench comprising Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan suspended the sentence and directed the IAS officer to deposit ₹25,000 with the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court within three weeks and without prejudice to his clean service records.
The interim orders were passed on an appeal preferred by Mr. Mishra, challenging his conviction and sentence that the single judge himself had suspended for a month to enable the officer to prefer an appeal. The Bench adjourned the appeal to July 21 for further hearing.
The single judge had found the officer guilty of contempt of court on a plea filed by elderly siblings R. Lalithambal and K.S. Viswananthan, who had been struggling for years to retrieve their valuable immovable property, which was acquired for a public purpose but reportedly not used for the same.
The siblings told the court that 17 cents of their land abutting Nesapakkam Road in Chennai was acquired in 1983 for constructing Tamil Nadu Housing Board tenements. However, when the land was not utilised for a long time, the petitioners initiated a legal battle seeking reconveyance of the property.
The government reconveyed only 10.5 cents but retained the rest of 6.5 cents for widening Nesappakkam Road, thereby forcing the litigants to initiate a second round of litigation.
On November 22, 2023, Justice P. Velmurugan had directed Mr. Mishra, the then Member Secretary of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), to consider the siblings’ plea and pass appropriate orders within two months. Since this order was not complied with, the siblings had moved a contempt plea.
The CMDA complied with the order after the filing of the contempt petition but Justice Velmurugan expressed displeasure over the officials having taken two years to do so. “This court notes with concern that such conduct by public authorities is not an isolated incident,” he said and imposed the punishment.
Published – June 12, 2025 12:23 pm IST