CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday granted two more weeks to the Tamil Nadu government to implement in full its earlier orders relating to measures to be taken to curb theft and smuggling of idols from temples.When writ petitions from R Venkataraman and advocate ‘Elephant’ G Rajendran came up for hearing, it was brought to the notice of Justice R Mahadevan that the 21 directives given by him on July 21 last year have not been fully complied with yet.
Hence the judge granted two more weeks to the government to implement all the directives, failing which he would issue summons for the appearance of Chief Secretary. He then posted the matter to March 23.
The judge on January 4 had warned the State that he would order a CBI probe into the pending idol theft cases, if the authorities failed to cooperate and provide proper infrastructure to the court-appointed idol wing led by Inspector-General of Police A G Pon Manickavel.
The judge on July 21, 2017, among other things, had directed Manickavel and his team to continue the probe, despite his transfer and ordered that all the pending cases in various courts in the State should be transferred to the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at Kumbakonam for speedy disposal on a day-to-day basis. The Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Department was required to submit a report on the number of temples under its control and the list of ‘archakars’ (priests) employed to Manickavel, with a specific direction to the officer to prosecute delinquent officials if prima facie a case was made out.
Chennai Collector appears in contempt case
Chennai: Chennai Collector Anbuselvan appeared before Justice N Kirubhakaran in connection with a contempt of court case on Friday. The matter relates to non-payment of compensation to a person for the past 30 years for acquiring land in Mylapore for purpose of MRTS by the Collector, who is also the land acquisition officer, despite court orders. The Additional Advocate-General produced a typed set of papers, which were neither produced before the civil court, when reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act for enhancement of compensation was heard nor before this court. “It will only go to show lethargic attitude and inefficiency of law officers. Unless they are sensitive and efficient, this kind of situation cannot be avoided. Hence, government should be careful while appointing law officers. Unless persons with integrity and exposure in law are appointed, it will go against interest of the State and lead to wastage of precious time of the court,” the judge said. The matter was posted for further hearing on March 23.