MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the chief secretary to the Tamil Nadu government to form a high-level committee to address the deficiencies in the functioning of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC).
Justice B Pugalendhi gave the direction while hearing a petition by R Rajesh Kanna, seeking CBI investigation into a complaint lodged by him with the DVAC against a woman inspector of the Civil Supplies-Criminal Investigation Department (CSCID), Dindigul, in a case involving smuggling of 1,000 kg PDS rice in July 2025.
Kanna alleged that the inspector demanded Rs 5 lakh for not arraying him as an accused in the smuggling case. Though he lodged a complaint with the DVAC, the latter failed to act even after obtaining audio evidence of the alleged bribe demand, leading to registration of the case against him, he claimed.
The counsel representing the DVAC contended that the audio evidence revealed that the petitioner had been paying ‘mamool’ of `15,000 every month to the inspector. Therefore the agency said it decided not to take action as the petitioner lacked credibility.
The judge said the explanation was unacceptable and violated the vigilance manual.
“The vigilance department has to focus on ensuring integrity of government officers, instead of analysing the integrity of a complainant. If the complainant is also a bribe giver, necessary action has to be initiated, but the same cannot be done by avoiding action as against an official, who openly demanded bribe for not registering a case,” he observed.
The case also exposes certain structural deficiencies in the functioning of the DVAC, the judge noted.
Though every district has a detachment headed by a deputy superintendent of police assisted by an inspector of police, the officers appear to possess little or no effective decision-making authority and await instructions from the directorate in Chennai for every important step, including factual verification and further course of action. Consequently, complaints remain pending at multiple levels without any officer being personally held accountable for the delay, the judge opined.
Highlighting other institutional deficiencies too, the judge directed the chief secretary to form a high level committee to address them and file a report within four months, with further directions to the government to act on the report within three months. The chief secretary was told to file a report in the second week of April 2027.
Remarks against CM: DMK MLA moves HC for bail
Chennai: DMK MLA G V Markandayan, representing Vilathikulam constituency in the Assembly, has moved the Madras High Court with a petition for enlarging him on bail in connection with a case of making derogatory and threatening comments against Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
He filed the petition for regular bail following the dismissal of a similar plea by the principal sessions and district judge in Thoothukudi on Thursday. Advocate A Saravanan on Friday sought urgent hearing on the matter following which Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan agreed to hear the petition on Monday. Markandayan was arrested by the Thoothukudi police on July 20.