MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the principal secretary of the municipal administration department to ensure that the availability of the ombudsman is exhibited in all the offices of local bodies in a prominent manner.
Justice B Pugalendhi gave the direction last week while dismissing a petition moved by the commissioner of Puliyangudi municipality in Tenkasi, K Paunraj, against an interim order passed by the Tamil Nadu Local Bodies Ombudsman Tribunal, referring the complaints made against him by the Taxpayers Welfare Association in Tenkasi and a few others to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in November 2019.
The complainants had alleged that the petitioner had committed several financial irregularities and amassed wealth disproportionate to his sources of income.
Paunraj's counsel, however, claimed that the association owed a huge amount in tax arrears and made the above complaint to intimidate him from taking any further action towards its recovery.
The judge observed that the Tamil Nadu Local Bodies Ombudsman Act was enacted in 2014 with an intention to address the complaints of corruption, maladministration, etc made against the elected members, officers and employees of the local bodies in the state.
Section 6(4) of the Act empowers the ombudsman to avail the services of any officer or investigation agency of the government for the purpose of conducting inquiry under the Act. Hence, the order of the ombudsman does not warrant interference, he held.
He also noted that a criminal case was registered against Paunraj by the district crime branch police (DCB), Coimbatore, in 2021, for misappropriating public funds to the tune of Rs 15.62 crore during his stint as Valparai municipality commissioner. The case was later transferred to the DVAC but no final report has been filed in the case despite a specific direction from the court in 2022, the judge noted, and directed the DVAC director to ensure that the final report is filed expeditiously.