MADURAI
A vacation bench of Justices S. Vaidyanathan and Abdul Quddhose on Thursday transferred to the principal seat a suo motu petition initiated against Nagercoil Municipality officials for engaging conservancy workers to clean drainage without providing any protective gear.
Kumaresan of Nagercoil had sent a petition to the Chief Justice of Madras High Court, stating that three conservancy workers in Nagercoil were engaged to clean a drainage near Saveriyar Koil Junction at Kottar. But they were not provided with any protective gear to clean the drainage and instead they used bare hands for the purpose.
He said that this was in violation of the Supreme Court’s direction. Protective gear had to be provided and only machines should be used to clean drainages. The act by officials attracted a penalty of five years’ imprisonment and a fine of ₹5 lakh, said Mr. Kumaresan.
He said he had made a complaint to the Collector, Superintendent of Police and the Municipal Commissioner but no action was initiated against the erring officials.
The Chief Justice had directed Additional Registrar General, Madurai Bench, to place it before a division bench to be heard as a public interest litigation petition.
