CHENNAI: The Madras HC on Tuesday ordered auditing of the accounts in the victim compensation fund collected from the wages of prisoners, following complaints of irregularities in its disbursal. The court has directed the Accountant General for Tamil Nadu to conduct the auditing.
A division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and M Jothiraman passed the orders based on a petition filed by M Deepalakshmi of Cuddalore, seeking orders to provide Class A privileges in prison to her husband, P Senthilkumar, a life convict incarcerated in Vellore Central Prison.
The court held that prisoners are entitled to question the “action or inaction, omission or commission of the prison authorities” regarding the settlement of victim’s compensation under the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund Rules, 2009, as they are contributing to the fund from their own wages.
“The Accountant General is directed to depute a team of Accounts Officers to conduct an audit of accounts under Rule 10 of the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund Rules, 2009 and find out the correctness of the accounts maintained and the genuinity of the payments made to victims,” the HC said.
Directing the audit team to hold the exercise in all eight central prisons in the state, the bench wanted the audit report filed on January 30, 2025.
The petitioner had alleged the Class A privileges given to her husband by a local court were stopped a few months back. Moreover, 20% of his wages in prison meant for the victim compensation fund were not distributed properly, she added.