MADURAI: Suspecting foul play in the filing of a fake writ petition, Justice Nagamuthu of Madras High Court directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu to take over the issue and hold a through enquiry to expose the perpetrators.
Originally, 11 persons filed a writ petition before Justice Nagamuthu while he was sitting the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai. The petitioners claimed that they were from Rasipuram in Namakkal district and prayed for a direction to the Rasipuram Municipality to recruit them as sanitary workers.
When the writ petitions came up for hearing, there was no representation for the petitioners and the writ petitions named M Saravanan and C Ravi as the counsels for the petitioners. Considering the fact that the petitioners appeared to be poor people knocking the doors of the court seeking relief, the court adjourned the petitions.
Even after a few adjournments, there was no representation for the petitioners and on perusal of the vakalats filed in each writ petitions, the court found some anomalies with respect to the signature and names of the counsels.
Observing some manipulation in the petitions, the court directed the BCT to verify the names of the counsels and subsequently directed the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Rasipuram to submit a report regarding the addresses given by the petitioners.
The enquiry revealed that no such persons were residing at the addresses and the BCT also submitted that no such advocates were practicing in Rasipuram. The enrolment numbers of the fictitious lawyers belonged to other advocates and two signatures in the name of Ravi and P P Dhass contained in the petition also belonged to fictitious individuals.
The Rasipuram Municipal Commissioner also submitted that no representation was received by him seeking employment.
Taking a serious note of this, the judge said, even now it is not understandable as to why such fictitious writ petitions should be filed. He said there appeared to be some mystery surrounding it. The petitions were dismissed.