The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a contempt notice to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manoj Tiwari for allegedly breaking the lock of a house sealed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation in an unauthorised colony in Delhi, PTI reported. The top court took cognisance of a report submitted by a monitoring committee and directed Tiwari to appear before it on September 25.

“[It is] unfortunate that an elected representative allegedly tried to defy [the] apex court’s orders,” the court said.

KJ Rao, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee, had said earlier he would inform the top court of the incident. On Tuesday, the Delhi Police filed a First Information Report against Tiwari on charges of disobeying an order promulgated by a public servant and for allegedly violating provisions of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

Tiwari, who broke open the seal on Sunday, asked why authorities had closed only one house in the lane and accused them of sealing properties according to their “whims and fancies”.

In July, the Supreme Court ruled that the sealing and demolition of unauthorised constructions in Delhi would continue.