The Madras High Court has deplored the practice of submitting representations to authorities and rushing to court for directions without giving sufficient time for officers to consider the representations.
Quoting a seven-judge member bench of the Supreme Court in this regard, the first bench of acting Chief Justice S K Agnihotri and Justice M M Sundresh said that in case of a statutory appeal or representation, a time of three to six months shall be given to the authorities to dispose of the same. Even if the time limit is not prescribed, at least some reasonable breathing time should be given.”
The bench made the observations while dismissing a PIL from A Mahendran, who sought a direction to the Vigilance and State authorities to probe his representation that highlighted the unexplained 542 per cent hike in value of assets belonging to former VCK MLA D Ravikumar, who is the party’s Tiruvallur parliamentary constituency candidate. Listing the assets declared by Ravikumar in 2006 when he contested from Kattumannarkovil Assembly constituency and comparing them with the list of movable and immovable properties he has submitted now, the petitioner said there were huge discrepancies in the way those assets were acquired by Ravikumar. He now possesses assets valued at `49 lakh, which is disproportionate to his known sources of income, as it works out to a 542 per cent increase.
Mahendran submitted his representation containing Ravikumar’s asset details on March 13.
Dismissing the PIL, the bench said that the petitioner had given the representation on March 13 and had come before this court without giving sufficient time for the authorities to consider his representation.