HC directs Principal Secy, Industries dept to appear tomorrow

: Madras High Court Bench today directed C V Shankar, Principal Secretary to the Industries Department, to be present in court tomorrow to clear its doubts on his report in a case over appointment of watchmen/ sweepers in government schools Usilampatti Educational District, allegedly at the behest of politicians.
Justice S Nagamuthu, who was hearing the 'Dispense with petition' filed on behalf of Shankar, claiming that he was busy with a Cabinet meeting, said if he was not able to come to court, he could have given the clarifications and sent other files and documents relating to recommendation letters written by party men, MLAs, Minister and so on.

The court said it was not known whether the so called recommendation letters were genuine or fake or forged. Only K Ganesan, the petitioner, who had obtained the information under Right to Information Act, revealing that the jobs were given based on recommendations, could do so.
It was not known whether the documents submitted to him were genuine and whether he was given copies of the recommendation letter, the judge said.
Commenting on the report, Justice Nagamuthu said it was not a proper report expected from a senior Level IAS officer. It did not have even proper Index. "This court wants to take a lesson to the officer on how to file a report."

A senior government officer,who appeared in court today on behalf of Shankar, said he could not bring the confidential matters himself, as Shankar was supposed to bring them and was busy with the Cabinet meeting.

The court said the officer should have investigated the MLAs and other partymen who had given so called recommendation letters. The Original Recommendation letters had not been filed in court.
Similarly an enquiry on phone calls from the director's office to DEO's Assistant, recommending some candidates, was incomplete and many doubts had to be clarified.
The judge directed the IAS officer to be present in Court tomorrow, failing which the Court would issue directions it deemed fit.

The judge said the charges are serious in nature and the court in fact wanted to probe the matter through a police officer. But the state had only offered to conduct an inquiry through Shankar.
The case was posted for today by the Judge on Sept 22. But the official could not come today.
Petitioner K Ganesan, a hearing and speech impaired person, who was denied a job as watchman, had alleged that the job was given to others based on recommendation letters given by politicians.