The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Apex court to examine contempt plea against retired judge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Apex court to examine contempt plea against retired judge

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 7. The Supreme Court has decided to examine a contempt plea against J. Kanakaraj, a retired Madras High Court judge and chairman of an educational trust; S. Palamalai, a former IAS officer and executive trustee of the trust; and the assistant principal of a school in Kerala. The petition was filed by T. Varghese George alleging that they violated the court orders.

A Bench consisting of Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Justice S.B. Sinha, issuing a notice in July, dispensed with their personal appearance. When the case was taken up on Monday after notice, K. Subramanian, senior counsel for the petitioner, said the trust had violated the court order not to alienate the trust property by selling articles at a throwaway price without following the procedure.

M.N. Rao, senior counsel for Mr. Justice Kanakaraj and Mr. Palamalai, submitted that they committed no contempt of court. He said an internal enquiry ordered by the trust was pending. S. Nandakumar, counsel for the assistant principal, contended that the property was sold only on instructions from superiors.

`Why is probe pending?'

The Bench drew counsel's attention to disposal of furniture after the court had passed the order not to alienate the property and said it was surprising the internal enquiry was still pending.

The Bench would therefore examine the issue and directed that the contempt petition be heard along with a special leave petition (SLP) filed by Dr. Varghese.

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court, by its December 15, 2002 order appointed Mr. Justice Kanakaraj chairman and Mr. Palamalai executive trustee of the T. Thomas Educational Trust, which is running a number of educational institutions in Chennai and Kerala.

Against this judgment, Dr. Varghese filed the SLP contending that the appointment of non-minorities on the trust board was contrary to Article 30 (1) of the Constitution. As the board passed resolutions for withdrawal of trust money and for sale of the trust land, he filed an application for appointment of a receiver.

The Supreme Court restrained the trustee from alienating any of the estates or other property without its permission.

In the contempt application, Dr. Varghese alleged that despite the restraint order, the chairman, the executive trustee and the assistant principal of the Marian Senior Secondary School, Kottayam, sold valuable wooden furniture worth Rs. 1 lakh for Rs. 20,100.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu