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| CHENNAI: In a whiplash intended to wake them up, the Madras high court has said public servants are not masters of the public. "There is a tendency now among certain officers to keep time-bound orders of courts in cold storage, and to drive litigants from pillar to post," Justice K K Sasidharan said on Thursday. "The officers are forgetting the fact that they are 'public servants' and not 'masters of public.' The lenient attitude taken by courts not to take action is often considered as a weakness." Taking suo motu notice of wilful disobedience of court orders by the collectors of Villupuramand Salem districts in a road-expansion case, the judge summoned them to explain why contempt-of-court proceedings should not be initiated against them. The collectors have been asked to submit their explanations on or before July 27. The matter relates to the acquisition of farmlands for a National Highways Authority of India project. Since there was a delay in the determination of compensation, the farmers whose lands were acquired approached the high court. In December 2012 the first bench directed the district collectors of Salem and Villupuram to consider the representations of the farmers and pass orders under Section 3(g) of the NH Act. When no compensation was determined in more than six months, the farmers filed another petition, saying the two collectors had shown "scant respect to the court order and they had failed to consider the compensation claim petitions". They wanted the court to appoint a former judge of the high court as arbitrator. When the matter was taken up for hearing, the government advocate said 194 applications were pending before the collectors and they would be disposed of in five months. But Justice Sasidharan came down heavily on the officials and said: "In the present system, people are supreme. The growing tendency now is to pass orders only after receiving notice in contempt petitions. The litigant would lose faith in the system if such cases of wilful violation of court orders are permitted. In case the district collectors were engaged in other duty, nothing prevented them from filing applications for extension of time. The lands owned by poor people were acquired long back for the national highway. Even after taking possession of the land, it is really a pity that the district collectors concerned have not taken steps. | ||
| Source: The Times of India https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/13fd195c21ad3eea |
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Posted By Blogger to What they say abourt Indian bureaucracy at 7/11/2013 11:39:00 PM
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