Sivagiri claimant sent to prison

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The Sivagiri Estate property dispute case took a curious turn on Tuesday with the Madras high court, which was hearing the claims of the legal heirs of the descendents of Pandian Dynasty, sending one claimant, N. Jaganathan, to jail for three months and imposing a fine of `50,000 each on him and his counsel, V. Chockalingam, for contempt of court.

A division bench of Justices P. Jyothimani and M. Duraiswamy said a default would result in simple imprisonment of one more month.

However, following a submission that Jaganathan was ailing, the bench suspended for one week the sentence of imprisonment alone.

The bench directed the registry to mark a copy of the order to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and said, “We leave it to the Bar Council to take appropriate action at its discretion.”

D. Selvam, chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, said, “Once we receive the order we will follow the procedure as contemplated under section 35 of the Advocates Act and the Rules of the Bar Council of India and take a decision.”

The bench directed the central and state governments to produce the records and posted to August 2 the appeals for final disposal.

It said Jaganathan filed a petition for issuing a letter of administration (LOA) based on a will alleged to have been executed by Varaguna Rama Pandiya Chinnathambiyar, stated to be the descendant of the legal heir of the Pandian Dynasty.

“It is clear that a fraud on the court has been played by both. The counsel would only say that he was taking earnest steps for procuring the LOA from the foreign country,” the division bench said.