The Madras High Court has constituted a committee to examine all documents and papers, accounts, including the amounts received by the World University Service (WUS) Centre, Chennai, from different sources for the last ten years.
Passing orders on a petition that sought a direction to the government to take action to bring the WUS Centre, Chetpet, under its direct control, the First Bench, comprising Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, said it had found, prima facie, that there had been serious bungling or misappropriation of public money.
Unable to rely on the report submitted by the University of Madras, the Bench said it was a fit case where a report from an independent committee was called for and constituted one consisting of two members – the Inspector General of Registration and the Chief Accounts Officer, Office of the Accountant General of Tamil Nadu – to examine all documents, accounts and expenditure of WUS for the past ten years and how the funds were spent.
'Fix responsibility'
The committee would also fix responsibility upon the persons who had defaulted or misappropriated the money and/or illegally allotted or leased out the premises or part thereof.
The committee should inquire the matter in detail and submit a report within a period of three months from the day of the order (April 11). The court said that it was needless to state that the petitioner and all respondents should co-operate in the inquiry and make available all documents called for by the committee. The case has been put up for July 25.
The petition has been filed by Kantharaj, a city doctor and former secretary of the centre.
