CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the State Social Welfare department to recover the amounts paid to the beneficiaries under various welfare schemes during 2009-2013.
The first bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan gave the directive on Wednesday while disposing of a PIL from Govi Thangaraj of Tiruvallur praying for a direction to the Director of Social Welfare department to take action against the officials who are responsible for sanctioning the amounts under various welfare heads to ineligible persons.
When the matter came up in the court on Wednesday, the department submitted that the amounts paid to ineligible beneficiaries were sought to be recovered by passing orders under the Revenue Recovery Act on November 3 last against 26 persons and to fix the responsibility, charges were framed under the Rule 17(b) of the Tamil Nadu Civil Services (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules against them on November 1.
The first bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, which recorded the submission, directed the director to extend the same action from 2009 to 2013 too and to complete the process of recovering the amounts and initiate action within six months.