Ascertain community of man who set himself ablaze in court: Madras HC

CHENNAI:  The Madras High Court on Friday directed Kancheepuram district administration to conduct a field inquiry to ascertain the community of a man who attempted to die by suicide on the court premises recently and succumbed to injuries later.

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Krishnakumar directed the Kancheepuram DRO to visit the residence of the man, Velmurugan, and speak to his neighbours and local authorities to check if he belonged to the ST community as claimed in the community-certificate applications filed by his children, which were rejected in September. 

The bench issued the direction when a suo motu case on the suicide bid, which took place on October 11, came up for hearing. “When you receive an application for a community certificate, do you merely sit on your chair and make conclusions or you conduct due inquiries (sic)?” the judges asked the district administration. They felt that the administration should have conducted proper inquiry before rejecting the community certificate application filed by Velmurugan’s children.

Additional Advocate General J Ravindran submitted before the bench that there was no fault on the part of the respondent district authorities. Velmurugan’s son submitted an application online on September 20, 2022, and it was transferred to the officer concerned the same date. 

On September 26, it was rejected because he failed to submit substantial evidence to prove his community, Ravindran said. He said the applicant had merely annexed the community certificate of a man, Elangovan, whom he claimed was his paternal uncle. The judges adjourned the matter by two weeks.