HC warns government on the issue of public representations

The Madras High Court today warned Tamil Nadu government that if no improvement is seen in disposing of representations made by public to various departments, it will have to call the Chief Secretary to appear before it in person.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam before which a writ petition filed by Kaliammal, a farmer, has come up seeking a direction to the authorities to remove encroachments in a place of 3.44 acres, classified as excess rain water supply canal Karadi Chithu Village in Villupuram District, in their order observed "this is one more case where representation of the citizens remain unanswered by the authorities."

"We find that the July 26, 2014 representation of the petitioner addressed to the District Collector was forwarded by an office memo on July 31 to the Tashildhar. However, there has been no response", the bench said.
"Such an attitude is burdening the judiciary," the bench said.
Finding fault with the authorities for not taking action on the representations made to them by public despite repeated orders by the High Court in different cases, the bench said "no endeavour is being made despite our repeated directions that such representations are bound to be disposed of in a time-bound manner".
The bench directed the Tahsildar to decide on the representation within one month and file an affidavit before the Bench explaining the inaction on the part of him and posted the matter to June 19.