Madras High Court orders police to probe a fraudulent appointment

Madras High Court orders police to probe a fraudulent appointment

Directs the department to file a status report after investigation

The Madras High Court has directed the jurisdictional police to register a criminal case and proceed in accordance with the law in a matter pertaining to a fraudulent appointment to the post of the operator of the overhead water tank of Muthur town panchayat in Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu.

Justice SM Subramaniam was dealing with a plea wherein the petitioner P Kuppusamy claimed he was denied an appointment due to corruption by the panchayat officials. He submitted that he had participated in the selection process for appointment to the post and in May 2014, it was issued in his favor.

He alleged that when he approached the office for joining, the executive officer of the town panchayat snatched the appointment order from him and directed him to join the duty the next day. But the next day, he was told that the fourth respondent was appointed due to political intervention and pressure.

Thus, Kuppusamy approached the high court.

He further contended he was denied the appointment, as he could not pay a sum of Rs.3.75 lakhs as demanded by the officer. Thus, the entire selection was tainted.

The respondent argued that the appointment order furnished by the petitioner was bogus and he had forged it to secure relief from the court. He further stated that no appointment order was issued to the petitioner though he admitted that the signature in the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner belonged to the third respondent.

It was also brought to the notice of the court that the font used in the appointment order issued to the fourth respondent was different from the font in the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner. Also, there was no counter signature of the office clerk made in the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner.

Further, even as per the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner, it was communicated to the District Collector, Tiruppur District, Assistant Director of the Town Panchayat, Erode District and the District Employment Officer, Tiruppur District. However, the order was not available in any of the above offices, which meant it was fabricated.

However, the court believed there had been fraudulent activity in the appointment. It directed the jurisdictional police to register a case under the relevant provisions of the criminal law and investigate. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tiruppur District, was directed to file a status report after the investigation.