How difficult is it to register corruption cases against powerful people, asks angry Madras High Court

CHENNAI: Without public-spirited persons or judges, everyone would be treated as a holy cow, said a vexed Madras High Court, expressing displeasure over the delay in prosecuting IAS officers allegedly involved in tender irregularities.

Justice Anand Venkatesh made the observation while hearing a contempt petition filed by Arappor Iyakkam over the delay in proceedings against former minister SP Velumani and IAS officers KS Kandasamy and K Vijayakarthikeyan in a tender irregularities case.

"How difficult is it to register corruption cases against powerful people in this country? If there were no public-spirited persons or judges, there would be no corruption cases against anyone. Everyone would be a holy cow," the court remarked.

The DVAC had registered a case alleging irregularities to the tune of Rs 98.25 crore in the award of contracts for works in the Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations when Velumani was the Municipal Administration and Water Supply minister.

Later, Arappor filed a contempt petition against DVAC for failing to comply with an earlier direction of the High Court to file the charge sheet in the case.

The court then directed the Union government to explain the delay in granting sanction to prosecute the IAS officers.

When the case was taken up again on Monday, the Union government said it had received the Tamil Nadu government's letter seeking sanction to prosecute the officers on July 28 and that the matter was under consideration.

When it was informed that the State had sent a reminder to the Centre on August 27, the judge asked how much the court had to insist on to obtain sanction to prosecute officers in a corruption case, and adjourned the hearing to September 16.