The Madras High Court Bench here has reversed an order passed by it last year to appoint an individual in a government job on compassionate grounds after it was brought to its notice that the direction was obtained by filing a false affidavit and suppressing the fact of a similar plea made by the youngster having been rejected by the court in 2013.
Allowing a writ appeal filed by School Education Secretary, a Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and C.T. Selvam set aside an order passed by a single judge on June 4 directing the State to provide public employment to M. Ramkumar whose father died in harness in 1998 while serving as an Assistant in a Government Higher Secondary School at Mimisal in Pudukottai district.
Special Government Pleader VR. Shanmuganathan brought it to the notice of the court that a writ petition filed by Mr. Ramkumar, seeking employment on compassionate grounds, was dismissed by another single judge of the High Court on November 11, 2013.
However, he filed a fresh writ petition for the same relief in 2015 without disclosing the dismissal of his earlier writ petition.
To make things worse, he had made a false averment in the affidavit filed along with the 2015 writ petition that it was the first case being filed by him on the issue, the SGP said. Shocked by the submissions, the Division Bench called for the case bundles related to the 2013 case from the High Court Registry and found that the litigant had indeed obtained an order last year “by filing a false affidavit.”
Observing that his conduct could not be condoned, the judges directed him to pay a cost of Rs.5,000 to the State Government or end up facing action under the Tamil Nadu Revenue Recovery Act, 1864.
They also quoted the Supreme Court to have said: “The court’s jurisdiction to determine the lis between the parties may be viewed from the human rights concept of access to justice. The same, however, would not mean that the court will have no jurisdiction to deny equitable relief when the complainant does not approach the court with a pair of clean hands.”
