Case against the municipal administration: The Home Secretary has been ordered to respond.
Tamil Nadu: The Chennai High Court has ordered the Tamil Nadu Home Secretary, the Director of the Enforcement Directorate, and the DGP to respond to a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate seeking the registration of a case based on evidence provided by the Enforcement Directorate regarding bribery in appointments to the Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply Departments.
A petition filed in the Chennai High Court by Adhinarayanan, a resident of Madurai, stated that 2,538 appointments were made in the Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department in the year 2024-25, including positions for Assistant Engineers, Junior Engineers, and Health Inspectors.
A total of Rs. 634 crore was allegedly collected as bribes, ranging from Rs. 25 lakh to Rs. 35 lakh per post. In this regard, the Enforcement Directorate sent a 232-page letter with evidence to the Tamil Nadu DGP. The letter stated that there was sufficient basis for the allegations.
It is the duty of the police department to register a case based on this evidence. The Enforcement Directorate cannot directly register and investigate such corruption cases. The Enforcement Directorate can only register a case if the state police registers one first. Therefore, the Enforcement Directorate sent the evidence to the DGP. However, no case has been registered yet. Therefore, to ensure transparent administration by the Tamil Nadu government, I submitted a petition to the DGP last November, requesting that a case be registered based on this evidence.
No action has been taken on this yet. Therefore, he stated that the DGP should be ordered to register a case after obtaining due permission from the Chief Secretary of the Tamil Nadu government, based on the evidence sent by the Enforcement Directorate.
The case came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice M.M. Srivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan on Tuesday. The judges hearing the case ordered the Tamil Nadu Home Secretary, the Director of the Enforcement Directorate, and the DGP to respond to the petition and adjourned the hearing to January 23. The judges also adjourned the hearing until January 23 on a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate seeking an order directing the DGP to register a case based on the evidence submitted regarding the sand mining scam in Tamil Nadu.
