CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court has stayed the operation of the GO, dated August 1 last, of the Tamil Nadu government, which entrusted all idol theft cases in the State to the CBI.The GO transferring the cases to the CBI cannot stand even for a minute, the bench of Justices R Mahadevan and P D Audikesavalu said. The bench was passing interim orders on a contempt application from advocate ‘elephant’ G Rajendran seeking to quash the GO, on Tuesday.
“The act of the authorities can straight away be declared as improper and illegal. It is a clear case of interference with the administration of justice by this court,” the special bench said.Earlier, the petitioner pointed out that the government had submitted that it had lost confidence in IG of Police Pon Manickavel, who had been appointed by the court as the Idol Wing Commissioner. But he had meticulously worked for the past one year and recovered over 20 idols, some of them from foreign countries. Even yesterday, the wing recovered an idol from Porur. If the government has any issue with the officer, it should be addressed internally. The entire investigation cannot be transferred on such a ground,” the petitioner said.
The GO indirectly stated that there was no good or able officer in the entire State. It has caused shame to other honest officers, the petitioner claimed.The Additional Advocate General argued that it was too early for the court to stay the GO. The same petitioner in another case had stated that Manickavel might tamper with records of investigation and had sought the court to transfer the case to the CID. But now he is saying that the wing has performed well and wanted the court to pass an order against the CBI probe, the AAG added.
Another advocate Ragavachari submitted that he represented a group of HR&CE officials who wanted to be impleaded in the case. Referring to the recent arrest of Kavitha, Additional Commissioner of the department based on the confession made by an accused in connection with alleged irregularities in making temple idols, Ragavachari said that not even a petty thief is arrested based on confession statements.There is absolutely no safety for the officials, he added.
The matter stood adjourned to August 8.
Meanwhile, the same bench granted conditional bail to Kavitha, who was arrested by the Wing last week on the charge that she had swindled a portion of the gold collected as donations and gifts from the devotees while making an idol for a temple in Kancheepuram. The court directed her to stay in Tiruchy for 30 days and appear before the special court at Kumbakonam.