The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday sentenced senior IAS officer Pradeep Yadav (IAS:1992:TN) and two others to two weeks of simple imprisonment for failing to comply with a 2012 order of the court. Yadav, who was the school education secretary at that time, is currently serving as additional chief secretary in the highways and minor ports department.
The court fined Yadav, then director of teacher education research and training in Chennai, Muthupalanichamy and the then principal of Tirunelveli district institute of Education and training Boobala Anto Rs 1,000 each and ordered them to surrender before the registrar (judicial) of the Bench by August 9. The court initiated contempt proceedings based on a petition by P Gnana Pragasam, who sought punishment for the officials’ deliberate disobedience of the 2012 order.
In the 2012 order, the court directed the officials to regularize Gnana Pragasam’s service as a sweeper-cum-gardener at a teacher training institution and provide him with monetary benefits within eight weeks. However, the respondents failed to comply with the order until July 20, 2023, despite their apology for the delay being declined by the court.
Gnana Pragasam, who retired in 2006 after 40 years and five months of service, had his petition allowed on December 3, 2012, but the authorities did not act on the court’s directive for several years, leading to the contempt petition filed in 2020.
