Madras High Court Directs Audit Of Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund In Central Prisons Across State

The Madras High Court has directed the Accountant General of Tamil Nadu (Audit) to depute a team of Accounts Officers and conduct an audit of accounts under the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund Rules, to find out the correctness of accounts and genuinty of payments made under the scheme. The bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman directed the Accountant General to complete the audit within 2 weeks in all the eight central prisons across the State where a District level Committee has been constituted as per the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund Rules. “The Accountant General of Tamil Nadu (Audit) is directed to depute a team of Accounts Officers to conduct audit of accounts under Rule 10 of the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund Rules, 2009 and find out the correctness of the accounts maintained and regarding the genuinity of the payments made to the victims under the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund. The audit shall be conducted within a period of two weeks in all the 8 Central Prisons across the Tamil Nadu, where a District Level Committee has been constituted under Rule 5 of the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund Rules, 2009,” the court said. The court was hearing a plea by M Depalakshmi, whose husband Senthilkumar was confined in the Vellore Central Prison. Depalakshmi had approached the court to ensure A-Class privileges to her husband which was already conferred to him. It was argued that the A-Class privileges, which was provided under Rule 233 of the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules had not been followed by the prison authorities. The petitioner also raised serious doubts in the manner the Victim compensation funds were being disbursed. She submitted that 20% of the wages of the prisoner's salary are deducted for settling the victim compensation and thus since the fund was created from and out of the wages recovered from the prisoners, they were entitled to question the correctness of the payments made by the competent prison authorities. The petitioner also relied on a news article published in the Times of India which said that due to misplaced sense of honour and poor awareness, Rs. 11.61 crore of the Victim Compensation Fund was lying unused with the prison department. The article also said that only 419 victims had availed the fund in the past 8 years. The court, thus, deemed it fit to order an audit of the accounts. The court thus suo motu impleaded the Accountant General and directed him to conduct the audit and submit a report by January 30, 2025. Case Title: M. Depalaksmi v. The Additional Chief Secretary to Government Case No: WP NO. 1651 of 2025Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Madras High Court Directs Audit Of Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Fund In Central Prisons Across State

Upasana Sajeev

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