The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday reserved its orders on a petition relating to misuse of the letter ‘G’ (used on the registration number plates of Government vehicles for identification) by private vehicle owners.
Justice N. Kirubakaran deferred his verdict without mentioning a date even though the Director General of Police (DGP) sought more time to file a report, as directed by the court on October 13, on the action initiated by the police department on the issue.
The judge ordered that the DGP’s report could be circulated to him on some other day. He had taken up the issue during the hearing of a petition filed by Balaji, a resident of S.S. Colony here, seeking a direction to the city police to register a case against an individual who had cheated him of Rs.20,000.
According to the petitioner, one Raja Shanmugam, Project Director of National Agriculture Development Corporation, a private organisation, had taken the money from him as commission for obtaining a government loan. But neither did he arrange for the loan nor repay the commission.
In the course of hearing, the petitioner’s counsel told the court that the accused was using a car with the letter ‘G’ printed on its number plate with the aim of cheating gullible people by making it appear as if he was an official of a government enterprise.
Taking serious note of the issue and observing that such misuse had become rampant in the recent years, the judge directed the DGP to file a report on steps taken by him to curb the menace besides taking steps to register a case on the basis of the complaint lodged by the petitioner.
When the matter came up on Wednesday, the court was informed that the S.S. Colony police station had registered a case under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code against the accused Raja Shanmugam.
After recording the submission, the judge said that he would pass a comprehensive order, at a later point of time, on misuse of the letter ‘G’ by private car owners.
