CHENNAI: AIADMK, the principal opposition party, on Monday moved a contempt of court petition, seeking the Madras High Court to punish two senior bureaucrats of Tamil Nadu for launching the “Nalam Kaakum Stalin” scheme, carrying chief minister’s name, and thereby disobeying the interim orders of the court that cited Supreme Court’s guidelines to restrain the use of names of living personalities in government schemes.
The contempt petition was moved by AIADMK’s Rajya Sabha member and former law minister C Ve Shanmugam. It was on his public interest litigation petition that the court had pronounced the interim orders on Thursday.
While the contempt petition is yet to come up for hearing, the first bench of the court headed by Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava on Monday adjourned the hearing of the modification petition moved by the state government on Friday regarding the interim orders issued in Shanmugam’s PIL.
The bench decided to adjourn the hearing after it was brought to its notice that the DMK, the fourth respondent in Shanmugam’s PIL, had moved the Supreme Court on Monday with a special leave petition (SLP) against the interim orders. The apex court is expected to hear it on Wednesday.
Although senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing TN government, wanted to place his arguments, irrespective of the SLP, the bench said it would be better to wait till the SC hears the SLP and adjourned the hearing to August 7 (Thursday).
The Nalam Kaakum Stalin scheme, under which 1,256 camps are planned across TN to offer the public comprehensive health check-ups, was launched here on Saturday by CM M K Stalin.
Shanmugam filed the contempt petition against Public Secretary Reeta Harish Thakkar and Health Secretary P Senthil Kumar. “It appears that the respondents have wilfully disobeyed the order and have committed contempt,” he said in the petition.
He said that a clear prima facie case has been made out for grant of necessary interim orders on the contempt petition and said “severe prejudice” will be caused at large if the respondent (govt authorities) continues to act in violation of the interim orders of the court pronounced on July 31, 2025.
The first bench headed by CJ Shrivastava, on July 31, passed the interim orders against using the name of any living personality and publishing photographs of ideological leaders or former CMs in the government schemes, as per the directions and guidelines of the Supreme Court in this regard. However, it permitted the government to go ahead with the launch of the new scheme by adhering to the orders.
On Friday, the Public Secretary moved a petition praying for modifying the interim order. It was to be heard on Monday. Shanmugam, in the contempt petition, noted that the respondent authorities ought to have waited for necessary orders on the modification petition. Instead, they went ahead with launching the scheme even when the modification petition was pending, thereby reducing the petition to a “mere formality” and an “eyewash” to escape the clutches of the contempt and as a shield against their “illegalities”.