Man gets three months in jail for contempt of court

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court sentenced a Chennai man to three months in jail for contempt of court, which he committed through “willful and intentional disobedience” of the court’s orders in connection with a land dispute. 

Justice SM Subramaniam issued the orders on Tuesday on a contempt petition filed by one Jinadoss and four other individuals against one D Nagarajan of Dasarathapuram, Saligramam in Chennai. The judge stated that the leniency granted by the court through giving several adjournments was undoubtedly abused and taken casually and the first respondent continued to violate the orders passed by the court.

His behaviour proves that he has no respect towards the court proceedings and abused the process of the court proceedings by giving false undertakings and by not complying with the same, the judge said. “Accordingly, this court is inclined to convict Nagarajan to undergo a simple imprisonment for a period of three months,” he ordered.

He directed the Velachery sub-registrar to cancel the sale deed and construction agreement and effect such cancellation in all the registration records and enter the same in the Encumbrance Certificates within two weeks. The matter is related to a dispute over a parcel of land located at Ram Nagar in Velachery. The court had ordered maintenance of status quo over the original petition.

Nagarajan, however, executed a sale deed in the name of Venkataram Yellam Raju and later documents were registered in the name of another person, Suriyanarayanan. The contempt petition was filed by Jinadoss and four others praying for contempt action against Nagarajan for not cancelling the deed, which was registered by the sub-registrar to convey an extent of 300 sq ft share at Ram Nagar South.