Fraudulent Appointment In Panchayat Office: Madras High Court Directs Jurisdictional Police To Register Case & Conduct Investigation

Justice SM Subramaniam was dealing with a plea wherein the petitioner P Kuppusamy claimed that he was denied appointment due to corruption by the Panchayat officials. Kuppusamy submitted that he had participated in the selection process for appointment to the said post and an appointment order was issued in his favor on 26.05.2014.

He alleged that when he approached the office for joining, the Executive officer, Town Panchayat pulled the appointment order from him and asked him to join duty on the next day. On the next day, however, he was allegedly informed that the fourth respondent was appointed due to political intervention and pressure. Hence, he moves the High Court.

The petitioner further contended that he was denied appointment because he could not meet the demand of the respondents to pay a sum of 3.75 lakhs and that is the reason why his appointment was not acted upon. Thus, the whole selection was tainted with corruption.

Per contra, the respondents argued that the appointment order furnished by the petitioner was a bogus appointment order. It was contended that a forged appointment order has been filed before the Court for the purpose of securing relief. They further submitted that no appointment order was issued to the petitioner though he admitted that the signature in the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner belonged to the third respondent.

It was also brought to the attention of the court that the font in the appointment order issued to the fourth respondent was different from that of the font in the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner. There was no counter signature of the office clerk made in the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner. Further, even though as per the appointment order enclosed by the petitioner, it was communicated to the District Collector, Tiruppur District, Assistant Director of the Town Panchayat, Erode District and the District Employment Officer, Tiruppur District. However, the order was not available in any of the above offices which would mean that the order was a fabricated one.

After perusing the affidavit and the counter affidavit, the court was satisfied that there was some fraudulent activity occurred in the matter of appointment of Over Head Water Tank Operator in Muthur Town Panchayat during the relevant point of time. The correctness of the order enclosed by the petitioner also had to be verified.

Thus, in view of the seriousness involved in the matter, the court deemed it fit to direct the jurisdictional Police to register a case under the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law and conduct an investigation and proceed in accordance with law.

The court therefore directed the Executive Officer to register a complaint setting out the entire facts along with the documents to the jurisdictional Police, within a period of one week. Upon receiving the complaint, the police was directed to register the same and proceed with the investigation. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tiruppur District was directed to file a status report after conducting investigation.

Case Title: P.Kuppusamy v. The District Collector and others

Case No: WP No.26472 of 2014