CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has found S Srinivasan, ex-managing director of Macneil and Magor Kilburn Group of Companies, guilty of contempt of court, ordered attachment of his property in Mylapore and sell it, besides imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him.The appropriate punishment would be sending him to jail. However, such a punishment would not meet the ends of justice, when the employees were languishing without employment and wages, first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam observed on Wednesday.The property in Kumara Vilas, No 15, Visweswarapuram Street in Mylapore should be sold by the Industrial Tribunal by public auction.The children and wife of Srinivasan should vacate the premises and hand over vacant possession of the building to the Tribunal within 15 days.The sale proceeds should be remitted to the credit of the Macneil and Magor Kilburn Group of Companies Employees Union which filed the complaint with the Tribunal, in 1999.Necessary orders for disbursement of the said amount to workmen should be passed by the Tribunal.The fine amount of Rs 5 lakh should also be remitted to the credit of the complainant within four weeks. This amount should be utilised for the settling the workers’ dues in addition to the sale proceeds, the bench added.It was passing final orders on a contempt application from the union seeking to punish Srinivasan for wilfully disobeying the order and direction issued by the High Court in a writ appeal on April 30, 2004. Originally, the union filed a complaint under Sec 33A of the Industrial Disputes (ID) Act with the Industrial Tribunal in 1999 against Macneil and Magor Limited, Kilburn Electrical Limited, Kilburn Control Systems Limited, Kilburn Starters Limited and Kilburn Fabrication Limited. The complaint alleged that the PF contributions were not remitted, transferred workmen from one company to another, did not pay the wages and finally declared lock-outs.By an order dated April 30, 2004, a division bench of the Madras High Court directed the companies to implement the award of the Tribunal and the orders of a single judge, which were all in favour of the union.Contending that the April 2004, order was not implemented, the union filed the present contempt petition in 2006. “Having assessed the attitude of the contemnor (Srinivasan), it appears that he does not have any respect for any of the orders passed by this court and he has been a compulsive litigant by taking inconsistent stand before various forums and making a mockery of judicial orders. Therefore, we are of the firm view that the contemnor should be dealt with a firm hand,” the bench said.
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