HC suspends panchayat officer for submitting forged documents

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) has suspended an executive officer of a town panchayat for filing a forged document in the court to defeat the lawful claim of the litigants and also directed the State to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the erring officer.

“An Executive Officer of a town panchayat having guts to file forged documents before this court to defeat the lawful claim is a serious issue as it is nothing but a perjury, a fraud, it can’t be taken lightly”, wrote a division bench comprising Justice R Suresh Kumar and Justice K Kumaresh Babu, while dismissing the appeal preferred by the State.

The bench also directed the disciplinary authority to lodge a complaint against the erring officer, to find out the persons behind the officer and also directed to complete the disciplinary proceedings within two months.

Vennanthur town panchayat moved the MHC seeking to set aside the single judge order in 2016, directing the town panchayat to regularise the pay scale of 11 sanitary workers.

The sanitary workers approached the court in 2013 seeking to regularise their pay scale as they were entitled under Government Order (GO) 199 of 1997.

According to the workers they were engaged by Vennanthur town panchayat, Namakkal, from 2006 in the sanitation works and clearing the solid waste on a temporary basis. Despite them being entitled for pay regularisation, the appellant refused to do the same. Hence, they approached the court, in 2016 the single judge directed the appellant town panchayat to regularise the workers’ pay scale from 2009 under the G.O 199.