Five Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers have undertaken before the Madras High Court to visit old age homes/orphanages, spend time with the inmates over there and arrange lunch or dinner from their personal funds to purge themselves of contempt of court proceedings.
Justice Battu Devanand (since transferred to the Andhra Pradesh High Court) recorded the contents of the written undertaking filed by the IAS officers Kumar Jayant, S.K. Prabakar, V. Rajaraman, P. Kumaravel Pandian and D. Baskara Pandian and granted two weeks’ time for complying with it.
“After visiting the homes, the contemnors shall file an affidavit before the Registrar (Judicial) of this High Court with regard to the service they rendered (to the inmates) within a week thereafter to enable the Registrar (Judicial) to keep the same in the record for perusal of the court,” the judge ordered.
After being satisfied with the undertaking filed on behalf of the five IAS officers, the judge closed the contempt proceedings against them with a warning that “if any contemnor fails to fulfil the undertaking, the Registry shall re-open the contempt petition and place it before this court.”
The contempt of court petition was filed jointly by three temporary government drivers C. Chinnathambi, M. Krishnamurthy and P. Anandhan for alleged disobedience of an order passed by Justice C. Saravanan on September 29, 2021 to regularise their services and absorb them in permanent posts.
Their counsel K. Balu brought it to the notice of the court that though the court order was eventually complied with and the services of all three petitioners were regularised, he complained that there was a delay of nearly three years in complying with the judicial order leading to loss of wages for that period.
Empathising with the petitioners, serving as drivers, Justice Devanand on July 21, 2025 (a day before his transfer) suggested that the five IAS officers could pay ₹1.25 lakh each from their personal funds to the three petitioners to compensate their collective monetary loss of around ₹6 lakh.
However, when Additional Advocate General P. Kumaresan stated it would be too onerous, the judge said, the officers could instead visit any old age home or orphanage, spend time with the inmates to motivate them and also buy either lunch or dinner for them out of personal funds.
Though the AAG readily agreed to it and said, the contempt proceedings could be closed by recording the oral undertaking of four out of the five IAS officers present in the court, the judge refused to accept oral submissions and insisted they should file a written undertaking to that effect.
The judge said, though the contemnors had tendered an unconditional apology before the court after admitting the delay in complying with the 2021 order, they must prove that the apology was bonafide and not merely a lip service solely intended to escape from punishment.
Accordingly, when the contempt petition was listed again on July 22, 2025 (the last day of Justice Devanand in Madras High Court), a written undertaking was filed on behalf of the five IAS officers expressing their willingness to visit any old age home/orphanage and serve food to the inmates.
Published – July 24, 2025 09:58 pm IST
