Tamil Nadu: Supreme Courts Holds 9 PWD Officials Guilty Of Contempt Of Court

It also directed Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) to revise and publish the seniority list of the selectees based on the selection process.

Chennai: The Supreme Court on Friday held nine Tamil Nadu officers guilty of contempt of court as they failed to implement the direction issued by the Apex Court on the revision of the seniority list in Tamil Nadu Public Works Department. 

According to a report on PTI, a plea was moved by PWD employees seeking to take contempt proceedings against the alleged contemnors for disobeying the Court order passed on January 22, 2016. The plea came up for hearing before the bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai. The bench said that the seniority list published based on the order of the Court is completely in breach with the directions of the Court. The list revealed that the selectees who received less marks were also placed above the selected who received high marks. Hence, the Bench said that the following persons are guilty of contempt of court. 

The SC said the nine persons--M.Vijayakumar, S Thinkaran, S.K. Prabhakar, S Bakthavathchalam, Dr S Swarna, K Nanthakumar, K Ramamurthy, K Shanmugam and Dr K Manivasan-- are contempt of the order issued by SC on February 11, 2021 and that the contempt proceedings have been initiated against them. 

Also, the Court directed the contemnors to be present before the court on January 22, 2022. It also directed Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) to revise and publish the seniority list of the selectees based on the selection process conducted with the notification of the Commission. It also said that the selection process should be published within 12 weeks. 

The case also pertains to the dispute over seniority on the seniority list published by PWD following which the aggrieved employees moved the Single Judge bench of Madras High Court on the fixation of the list published on April 29, 2004.