HC seeks report from TN govt on Global Investors Meet

The Madras High Court Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government to file a status report on the outcome of the Global Investors' Meet held in 2015 and its recently concluded edition.

A division bench, comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam, issued the order while dismissing a public interest litigation by Singapore-based Cascade Energy Pvt Ltd seeking a directive to the government to frame guidelines to protect foreign investors from allegedly tainted companies.

The petitioner firm said it had earlier been cheated by an Indian solar project company of Rs 33 crore.

The advocate general, appearing for the government, submitted that the guidelines had been mentioned in the investors' handbook published on the eve of the Global Investors Meet 2015 and similar contents would have been made available for the 2019 edition which concluded Thursday.

Also, he submitted that necessary redressal mechanism had been put in place and all the details posted on the website, and a helpline too had been set up.

The bench said a perusal of the materials and documents placed before the court, as well as the submission made by the advocate general would disclose that proper mechanism had been put in place by the government for protecting investors.

At the same time, the bench said it is to be noted that the government was spending considerable amount in making the investors meet a success and that effort should necessarily be transformed into good and proper investments, so as to develop industrialisation and generate employment.

Hence, the court said, it was necessary for the additional secretary to industries department to file the status report as to how many projects came into being during the meet in 2015, the current stage of those projects and the employment generated as well the agreements entered into during the meet this year.

The bench said the writ petitions lack merit and substance and deserved dismissal.

Referring to Supreme Court judgements, it also observed that the PIL, conceived as a boon to the poor and downtrodden who were not aware of their legal rights and lack resources to approach the court, was of late becoming a tool for misuse.