The Madras High Court on Monday made it mandatory for all government employees in the State as well as those working for local bodies and other government instrumentalities to wear their identity cards during working hours. The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice P.T. Asha issued the direction on a suo motu public interest litigation petition, taken up on the basis of a letter from a resident of Erode.
In the letter addressed to the Chief Justice, M. Valli Narayanan had sought the implementation of a 1986 Government Order which required government servants to sport their name badges during working hours. Despite the existence of such a condition, a majority of government employees were found violating the norm, he alleged. Special Government Pleader E. Manohar informed the court that the old system of displaying name badges had been done away with, and government servants had been provided with computerised identity cards containing their photographs and other essential details.
After recording the submission, the Division Bench ordered that government servants should sport identity cards during working hours. It also directed the High Court Registry to forward a copy of the court order to Mr. Narayanan.
