CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government and the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board have accused YouTuber Savukku Shankar of filing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a CBI probe into the entrepreneurship scheme for conservancy workers out of political animosity, alleging that the petition lacks substantial evidence to support his claims.
The PIL was filed for a CBI probe into the implementation of Annal Ambedkar Business Champions Scheme of the state government and National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem of the Centre.
Advocate General (AG) PS Raman, representing the state government and Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran questioned the intention behind choosing the PIL before the second vacation bench just after submitting the representation to the CBI only in March. They also questioned the timing of the filing of the PIL.
“The prayer is for CBI to take action on his representation. The CBI has no automatic jurisdiction in the state unless the constitutional courts issues orders for such a probe,” the AG told a division bench of justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan, adding that if the CBI has to probe, there must be some other case on the issue but here is no such case.
He noted that the petitioner submitted the representation to the Central agency only in March 2025, and the PIL has been filed now before the vacation court.
Referring to an earlier instruction of the bench to produce the files relating to the scheme implementation, the AG informed that the state government had delegated the powers to implement the schemes CMWSSB, and it has got only the files relating to the award of tenders under the TN Transparency in Tenders Act.
He told the bench the scheme has been successfully implemented by the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) in four to five states, including Hyderabad city, and the TN government roped in DICCI only after the Safai Karamchari Andolan suggested it.
Raman described the scheme as “extremely wonderful” and stood on “very solid foundation” for turning actual conservancy workers into entrepreneurs.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran submitted that the schemes have been implemented from 2023 and the petitioner remained silent till now but chose to file the PIL before the second vacation bench.
“He has made bald allegations without an iota of substantiating evidence,” he said.
Questioning the bona fide intention of the petitioner, the AAG further said the PIL has no public interest but it is a “'Publicity' Interest Litigation” filed “with a corrupt mind”.
Referring to the allegations against Ravikumar Nara of DICCI, the AG said if allegations are made against DICCI, then the organization shall be made a party in the case; and the court cannot pass strictures against a person in his absence but the bench declined to implead DICCI as a party
Accepting the request of the AAG for a reasonable time since there are 200 files relating to the scheme, the bench granted time till May 21 for CMWSSB to produce the files relating to the scheme, and accordingly adjourned the hearing.
