The Madras High Court today stayed a Tamil Nadu government order transferring all idol theft cases in the state to the CBI, lambasting it for its "hurried" action when the matter was already pending before the court.
A division bench of justices R Mahadevan and P D Audikesavalu stayed the August 1 government order transferring the cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
It passed the interim order on a petition by advocate Elephant Rajendran seeking quashing of the G.O.
The court issued notice to the state government and posted the matter to tomorrow for further hearing.
Earlier, the bench questioned the urgency in passing the G.O a day after the government had informed the court that it had taken a policy decision to order the CBI probe.
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On August 1, the state government informed the High Court that it had taken a policy decision to hand over all idol theft cases to the CBI as the idol wing, headed by IG Pon Manickavel, was "not performing satisfactorily."
"The government which has not even shown an inch of interest in implementing the directions given by this Court in the idol theft cases has shown that much interest in passing a government order transferring the investigation to CBI," the bench observed.
When the court-appointed team was probing the cases, what made the government to issue the order in such a hurried manner? the bench asked.
Terming the action as "improper and illegal," the bench stayed the G.O.
Meanwhile, the high court granted condition bail to Additional Commissioner of HR&CE, Kavitha, who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in misappropriation of gold and funds collected for making two idols at the Sri Ekambareswarar temple in Kancheepuram.
She was directed to stay at Tiruchirapalli for a month and to appear twice a week before the Idol Wing police.
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