HC bench issues directive to Virudhunagar police

The Madras High Court bench here on Monday directed the Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police to register a case against the District Collector, Assistant Director of Rural Development and the Block Development Officer, if a prima facie case is made out against them on the allegations made by the vice-president of Zaminkollankondan panchayat.

In his petition, the vice-president of Zaminkollankondan panchayat, K. Sankaravel, had sought a direction to the police to register an FIR against Collector T.N. Hariharan and other authorities for submitting a show-cause notice, the acknowledgement of which carried a “forged signature” of the petitioner, before a single judge in 2012.

According to Mr.Sankaravel, he had originally moved the court in 2012 challenging the Collector’s proceedings cancelling the petitioner’s authority as vice-president of the panchayat to sign cheques.

In his counter, Mr.Hariharan had claimed that the notice was issued after the petitioner failed to submit his explanation to a show-cause notice issued on June 14, 2012 (vide AD1/1749/2012) based on a resolution passed by the ward members that Mr.Sankaravel refused to sign cheques due to some misunderstanding with the president of the panchayat. He had also submitted a copy of his show-cause notice to the court. Subsequently, the single judge had dismissed Mr.Sankaravel’s petition challenging the Collector’s notice.

However, in his petition that came up for hearing before Justice S. Vaidyanathan, Mr.Sankaravel claimed that the Collector did not issue any show-cause notice to him on June 14, 2012.

He alleged that the Collector, the Assistant Director of Rural Development and the Block Development Officer had created a false document with his forged signature and submitted it to the court.

The actual notice issued (vide AD1/1749/2012) was not a show-cause notice from the Collector, but a notice from the Assistant Director of Rural Development to the Block Development Officer ordering a probe into a grievance addressed to the Collector against the president of the Zaminkollankondan panchayat for failing to conduct proper meetings and questioning his financial integrity, the petitioner claimed, and submitted a copy of the notice to the judge.