Retired ACS among four senior officers sentenced to two-month jail in MP

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has sentenced a retired Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), a serving IAS officer, and two serving senior Health Department officials to two months of simple imprisonment each pronouncing them guilty of contempt by wilfully disobeying a court order in a long-pending case of regularising nine ward boys posted at the Mandsaur district hospital of the state.

The order was passed by Justice Pranay Verma at the High Court’s Indore Bench on Wednesday.

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The officials include former nstate ACS Health Mohammad Suleman, serving IAS Tarun Rathi, Ujjain division Joint Director (Health) Dr D K Tiwari, and Mandsaur Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Govind Chouhan.

The court, however, gave the guilty officials a reprieve of three weeks before the prison sentence would come into effect.

According to court sources, the petitioners in the case had alleged non-compliance by the said officials to a court order of 6 December 2023, in which the court had directed authorities to grant regularisation benefits to the petitioners from 2004 to 7 April 2016, along with all consequential benefits, within three months.

The petitioner’s lawyer had informed the court that despite repeated directions, warnings and opportunities over nearly two years, the officials failed to fully implement the order.

In the latest hearing, the court noted that the conduct of the officials showed a clear pattern of wilful and deliberate disobedience, adding that they had attempted to mislead the court and delay compliance through all possible tactics.

Despite the officials submitting in the latest court hearing that the order had been complied with on 12 March 2026, the court found it unsatisfactory, as the deadline for compliance was 6 February 2026.

Highlighting the delay, the court pointed out that the matter had been listed 22 times, yet the order remained unimplemented in full. It rejected the officials’ plea for more time, citing its earlier warning that failure to comply would automatically result in contempt.