PIL against bogus ration cards dismissed

September 21, 2014 09:53 am | Updated 09:53 am IST - MADURAI:

The Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking a direction to the State government to make a fresh assessment of ration cards in the State in order to confiscate bogus ration cards besides issuing new family cards to all eligible families within a stipulated time.

The petition also sought a direction to the State to initiate civil and criminal proceedings against Civil Supply officials responsible for issuing bogus family cards.

However, a Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and V.S. Ravi refused to entertain the case since the petitioner had not made a representation to the government .

The judges said the petitioner, M. Gajendran, was a practising advocate and a Councillor of Virudhunagar Municipality. In his affidavit, he had cited many instances of bogus ration cards having been issued by the officials and also relied upon details hosted on the website of Civil Supplies Corporation to demonstrate the procedure adopted for issuing ration cards.

On the other hand, Special Government Pleader A.K. Baskara Pandian submitted that the petitioner had approached the court straightaway seeking a writ of mandamus against the government without even following the basic principle of forwarding a representation to the officials concerned and then approaching the court if they failed to initiate action within a reasonable time.

The judges said: “We are not in disagreement with the petitioner on the aspect of public interest…But, in the present case, the principles applicable for issuance of writ of mandamus have not been followed.

“Unless and until the alleged irregularities are pointed out to the competent authorities, it cannot be said that they have knowledge of the same. Question of issuance of mandamus arises only when the official respondents had failed to discharge their duties.”

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