CHENNAI: Madras high court has ordered the personal appearance of deputy commissioner of Chennai Corporation’s zone 6 in court on April 25, for the official’s failure to comply with eariler orders to remove encroachments on Paper Mills Road in Sembiam here.A division bench of Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Bhavani Subbaroyan issued the summons, on a contempt of court petition filed by karate teacher LT William.The deputy commissioner has been directed to appear before the court on April 25 with relevant documents and photos to show the present status of the area so that the court can decide on reopening the contempt plea, as sought for by the petitioner.The primary contention of the petitioner is that the corporation, in the guise of removing encroachments, had in fact razed the entire pavement on either side of the Paper Mill Road. But the encroachments were allowed to remain, he added. William also produced photographs taken in 2015 to substantiate his claim.He further submitted that road-users have been put to great hardship and agony owing to wilful and deliberate conduct of the authorities, and added that road accidents had increased manifold . Police are expressing helplessness, colluding with encroachers, he alleged.Recording his submissions, the bench said: “The application has been filed to reopen the contempt petition filed for wilful disobedience of court orders passed on December 7, 2012. According to the petitioner under the guise of removing the encroachments the Chennai corporation has removed the pavements on either side of the road.”The status report relied by the counsel for the corporation filed in February 2013 did not explicitly state that the encroachments have been removed. Photos produces by the petitioner which were taken in 2015 show that the entire area is highly congested and there are encroachments into the road, the bench added.“Thus, to have a clear picture we direct the regional deputy commissioner of zone 6 under whose jurisdiction the area falls to appear before the court with relevant documents and photos to enable the court to decide whether to reopen the contempt or not,” the court ordered.

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