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Judgment
This Contempt Petition has been filed to issue notice to the Respondent and to punish the Respondent for the contempt of the order passed by this Court in W.P(MD)No.24620 of 2016, dated 24.12.2016.
Heard the Learned Counsel for the Petitioners and the Learned Government Advocate appearing for the Respondent/Contemnor.
It is represented on behalf of the Respondent/Contemnor(The District Collector, Tiruchirappalli) that an Enquiry committee was appointed by means of an order, dated 17.2.2017 to inspect the Panchayat Accounts and for submission of a detailed report in respect of the order from 2006 to 2016.
It comes to be known that the Enquiry Officers after conducting enquiry, at siruganur Village Panchayat, submitted a detailed report. Further, based on the Enquiry Report, a show cause notice was issued to the Respondents 5 to 7 on 25.09.2017 and the Panchayat Secretary had asked for the records to submit his explanation for the show-cause notice, dated 4.10.2017. In fact, the Enquiry Committee inspected the available documents regarding the collection of House-Tax, Library-Tax, Water-Tax, deposits and Professional-Tax amount, which are remitted in the Government Accounts.
In reality, the details of the amount which are remitted and not remitted in the Bank Accounts at Siruganur Panchayat Government Accounts are extracted as under:
SL. No
Year
Collect ed Tax Amount in Registe r 7
Collect ed Tax Amoun t nonentry in Receip t Book and Regist er
Nonentry amount in Registe r and Receipt Book known by some docum ents
Total Collect ion Amoun t
Bank Statem ent
Non deposit remain ing amount
1
2006-07 429328 0 0 429328 427577 1751
2
2007-08 631102 0 20273 651375 631102 20273
3
2008-09 621774 0 1492 623266 410377 212889
4
2009-10 855752 14063 0 869815 782441 87374
5
2010-11 824501 92752 0 917253 842944 74309
6
2011-12 101502 9
40661 17650 107334 0
898133 175201 7
7 2012-13 855865 13588 0
0 991745 892971 98774
8 2013-14 505275 47071 4
0 975989 954842 21147
9 2014-15 969134 39650 0
0 136563 4
102661 5
339019
Total 670776 0
11505 70
39415 789774 5
686700 2
103074 3
In short, it is the plea of the Respondent that as per the Enquiry Report(for the period from 2006-2007 to 2014-2015), after verifying the documents in Siruganur Village Panchayat Account No.1, it was found that an amount of Rs.10,53,776/- as stated supra, was collected by means of House-Tax, Library-Tax, Water -Tax, Professional-Tax and Deposit, had not been remitted in the concerned Government Account.
Apart from that, during the enquiry on 17.5.2017, the Petitioners submitted some receipts for perusal which were inspected as to whether they have been properly accounted for and credited to the Siruganur Village Panchayat Government Account and the same is as follows:
Year Taxation Collecti on Amount
Collecti on Amount nonentry in Register Form 7
Amount Include in Annexur e-2 non included in Form 7
Addl. Amount
Differen tiate amount which is not included in Form- 7 and Annexur e-2
2006-07 to 2014- 2015
House Tax
68525 35376 28336 63712 4813
2006-20 07 to 2010-11 2014-15 to 2016-17
Water Tax
16800 13200 1440 14640 2160
2008-09 and 2009-20 10
Miscella neous Tax
30570 5470 9040 14510 16060
115895 54046 38816 92862 23033
The Learned Counsel for the Respondent/Contemnor brings it to the notice of this Court that during inspection, the documents were perused by the Enquiry Officers and the above receipts amount of Rs.92,862/- and already collected amount in the previous column amount of Rs.10,30,743/- and the difference amount is Rs. 23,033/- which was included in the total Embezzlement amount of Rs.10,53,776/-. Only based on the available records, the Enquiry Committee submitted its report, dated 29.08.2017,addressed to the Respondent/Contemnor(The District Collector, Tiruchirappalli) and the District Collector had issued a show-cause notice to pay the Embezzled amount of Rs.10,53,776/- to the Respondents 5 to 7.
It transpires that the show-cause notice issued by the District Collector, Tiruchirappalli, dated 25.09.2017 was challenged in W.P(MD)No.18975 of 2017 and this Court, on 11.10.2017 had passed an interim order, which runs as under: "Without serving copy of the enquiry report, straight away, recovery has been proceeded with. Hence, this impugned order shall be kept in abeyance for a period of two weeks."
Further, on 31.10.2017, this Court in W.P(MD)No.15337 of 2017 passed the following order: "Call on 09.11.2017.Interim order already granted is extended till then."
In effect, the plea of the Respondent/Contemnor is that the Enquiry Committee was formed and a detailed Enquiry Report was submitted and based on the said Committee''s Report, a showcause notice was issued to R5 to R7.
In view of the fact that the Respondent/Contemnor(The District Collector, Tiruchirappalli) had taken necessary action and based on the Enquiry Officer''s Report, a show-cause notice was issued to R5 to R7, this Court is of the considered view that the order, dated 24.12.2016 in W.P(MD)No.24620 of 2016 is complied with by the Respondent/Contemnor. Accordingly, this Court closes the present Contempt Petition.