PIL moved seeking declaration of proposed VAOs strike as illegal

The VAOs have called for the protest demanding that the Tamil Nadu government provide laptops to all the 16,682 VAOs, along with internet allowance. 

Munikrishnan, a resident of Tiruvannamalai has approached the High Court through a public interest litigation (PIL), seeking to declare the strike as illegal, pointing out that such a protest would stall the administration of villages throughout the state. 

He said, “When thousands of applications seeking various certificates including caste and community are pending with the offices of VAOs across the state, such a strike cannot be allowed.” 

The VAOs strike is based on the aspect that in March 2012, the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa launched the distribution of free laptops to VAOs at a cost of Rs 22.49 crore. The government announced that printers would also be provided with the laptops to all the VAOs. 

However, since only 8,751 VAOs have received the laptops so far, that too without any allowance for internet service, the officers wanted the government to distribute the computers to all officers immediately. Since a representation sent by the VAOs received no response from the government, they have announced the protest. 

The PIL is likely to be taken up for hearing on January 12, by the first bench headed by the Chief Justice, Indira Banerjee. 

Arguments in the 18 MLAs disqualification case is set to continue on Friday, with the counsels appearing for the disqualified MLAs set to put forth their case. Senior Counsel P S Raman, appearing for the disqualified MLAs submitted before the bench that the intention of the 18 MLAs in approaching the Governor was merely to get the Chief Minister changed and not topple the government and  submitted that the name of K A Sengottaiayan was offered as an alternative.

While the CBI’s failure had led to the mystery death of a lawyer’s son in 2011 being handed over to a special investigation team (SIT), the Madras High Court has been informed through a status report that “the instant case is one of homicide.” A full bench, comprising Justices Rajiv Shakdher, G Jayachandran and N Satishkumar said, “The SIT has recommended criminal and departmental action be taken against certain officials who are under the control of State/Central Government.” 

Directing the State/Central Government to file an affidavit on the steps taken on the recommendations made in the Status Report, prior to the next date of hearing on February 15, the bench also sought SIT to hand over a copy of the status report with annexures to the petitioner. S Sathish Kumar, 24, son of advocate and human rights activist R Sankarasubbu, was found dead in June 2011. Kumar, a law graduate, left his Anna Nagar home on June 7, and never returned. His dead body, bearing cut injuries, was found floating in a lake near ICF police station outpost on June 13.