Madras High Court orders FIR, freeze on publisher A/C

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to immediately register an FIR into the alleged large-scale irregularities in the procurement of books for public libraries in Tamil Nadu.

The court also ordered the freezing of the bank accounts of Agal Vilakku Publications, its proprietor Mohan and others involved, and directed the government to take immediate disciplinary action, including suspension of officials involved in the procurement.

A division bench comprising Justices GR Swaminathan and MD Sumathi passed the order in a contempt petition alleging non-compliance with the directives issued by the court in June 2024 to ensure transparency in the procurement of books for public libraries.

“If the comprehensive directives issued by us in 2024 had been followed, we are certain that procurement would not have been made from dubious entities such as Agal Vilakku, Sigma and Phoenix publishers,” the judges observed.

The court expressed concern that no FIR has been registered even a week after the facts came to light.

It asked what prevented the DVAC from registering a case against unknown public servants when crores of rupees of the public exchequer had been spent.

“It is too obvious that a crime of this proportion could not have taken place without the active involvement of government servants. Not only BNS provisions but those under the Prevention of Corruption Act also stand attracted,” the bench said.

The court asked the Director of Public Libraries to furnish the names and details of officials responsible for the procurement of questionable books during the last two years. "So that they can be impleaded as contemnors in this petition and dealt with appropriately. We also direct the DVAC to forthwith register an FIR," the court said.

The authorities were also directed to prepare an inventory of the books in question and ensure they were not made available to readers in public libraries. The bench further directed the authorities to disclose the exact amount spent on the procurement and make photocopies of the relevant records available.

It noted that the people of Tamil Nadu received a shock on the eve of Deepavali after writer Perumal Murugan expressed anguish on social media over what he described as a colossal fraud in the procurement of books for Periyar Arivulagam in Coimbatore. This was followed by a huge public outcry.

The bench referred to a book titled ‘Democracy and People’s Right in the Contemporary World,’ displayed at the Kalaignar Centenary Library in Madurai under the name of economist Jean Drèze. The court observed that Drèze was “foxed and baffled” by the book and had denounced it as fake. It also noted that works falsely attributed to poet Subramania Bharathi were found on public library shelves.

The court observed that public libraries had been established to address information asymmetry, achieve social justice, and empower and educate people. “By stacking bogus books with false content and books by phantom authors, not only the statutory duty cast under the Tamil Nadu Public Libraries Act, 1948, is breached, the right to receive accurate and quality information is also infringed. Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India acquires a different colour in the context of the Public Libraries Act,” the bench observed.

Referring to Rule 18(4) of the Tamil Nadu Public Libraries Rules, 1950, the court said books selected for public libraries should be of general interest and cultural value. It observed that the standards applicable to fiction could also be extended to non-fiction. Books containing dubious content and false narratives would fall within the category of books of “doubtful taste”. AI-generated and plagiarised works would also fall within this ambit, it said.

The Director of Public Libraries was directed to file an affidavit detailing the entire sequence of events and identify those involved, from top to bottom. The next hearing is on Wednesday.