Two AIR officials get jail term for contempt

CHENNAI, JUNE 21: Madras High Court has sentenced the Director General of All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi and the station director of AIR...

CHENNAI, JUNE 21: Madras High Court has sentenced the Director General of All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi and the station director of AIR here, to undergo one week simple imprisonment, for contempt of court.

Justice P Shanmugham who awarded the sentence, also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 each, in default to undergo one more week simple imprisonment.

The Judge passed the order on a contempt application filed by one of the tenderers, S Premalatha, seeking to punish the Director General and the station director for wilfully disobeying the High Court order dated February 11 last, which directed them to open the tender for allotment of FM channel slots, in the presence of the petitioner and other tenderers within a period of one week.

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In her application, Premalatha contended that despite the court order, the officials of AIR did not comply with the order.

In their counter, the officials said that the Prasar Bharati had taken a decision to withdraw the tender notice as per the order dated February 7 last and that they were unable to open the tender.

The Judge said the fact remained that inspite of a clear and specific order to open the tender within a week, the director general and the station director here had not opened the tender till date.

From the order on the main petition, it could be seen that the time limit for private agencies who were allotted FM channel slots on the basis of the tender in the year 1995, expired in 1998. The writ petition filed by those operators for the continuance of the slots beyond the expiry period was dismissed by the Delhi High Court on May 29, 1998, which was also confirmed by the Supreme Court on June 29, 1998. However, even after the final judgment of the Apex Court, the tenders submitted by the petitioner and others were not opened on the plea of pending litigation, the Judge added. The Judge expressed his displeasure at the way the public revenue and the interest was put to loss by not giving effect to the order of the Delhi HC, also confirmed by the Apex Court, and allowing the operators to continue on the basis of the tenders of the year 1995 and not opening the fresh tender after expiry of the period.

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The Judge said thus it was established that the officials of AIR were not not supporting the cause of the department but were only supporting the present operators who wanted to continue with the operation based on the 1995 licence. It was clear that the officials were not interested from the beginning in opening the tender under one pretext or the other. They have no no respect for the orders of this court, the Judge said.

He said the action of the director general and the station director of AIR was deliberate and intentional. The apology tendered by them was only formal and not bona fide. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, they have committed contempt of court by disobeying the order and are liable for punishment, the Judge added.