HC finds fault with official for sending 'faulty' eviction

The Madras high court has found fault with an attempt of an executive officer who issued "faulty" eviction notices to those occupying heritage mandapams inside the Mahamaham tank in Kumbakonam.
"We strongly condemn such endeavours to assist the violating parties by sending defective notices, so that they may approach the court to obtain interim orders," a first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sundar said recently.
It then directed the Joint Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to look into the matter and ensure proper action.
The matter relates to a PIL filed by advocate and activist Elephant G Rajendran, who had moved the court seeking appointment of a monitoring committee headed by a retired judge of the high court to supervise spending of large sums of money allocated for the Mahamaham festival at Kumbakonam last year.

As follow up of his petition, Rajendran submitted further materials relating to illegal occupation of the four mandapams inside the tank and sought action.
After counsel for the department assured the court that necessary action would be taken, notices were sent to the occupants on December 28 last year by the executive officer asking them to vacate the premises.

However, Rajendran pointed out that the notices did not mention as to under what provisions of law such notices had been generated.
When the court put the question to counsel, he said they had been issued under Section 78 of the TN HR&CE Act, 1959.

"On perusal of the provisions of Section (2), it is clear that the power vests with the joint commissioner. On our query now, counsel states that the notices are defective." The bench then registered its strong condemnation and directed the joint commissioner to look into the issue and said it would be his 'personal responsibility.'
It then posted the matter to February 24 for further proceedings.
In a related case, passing orders on the petition filed by Rajendran, the bench directed former district judge Solaimalai, who had been appointed by the court to supervise the expenses made out of Mahamaham funds, to visit the areas concerned along with revenue officials and submit reports along with photographs.