TN govt opposes in HC contempt plea by Idol wing special officer

A petition filed by Pon Manickavel, a special officer to probe idol theft cases has been strongly opposed by the Tamil Nadu government in the Madras High Court on Wednesday. The issue pertains to the contempt plea moved by Pon Manickavel which sought to punish the authorities for committing contempt of court by not complying with the directions of the court in the matter relating to idol theft cases.

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government strongly opposed in the Madras High Court on Wednesday a contempt petition filed by Pon Manickavel, appointed by the court as special officer to probe idol theft cases, alleging that he was the highest contemnor of the orders of the high court and the Supreme Court.

Submitting his arguments before a bench of Justice R Mahadevan and Justice P D Audikesavalu, state Additional Advocate General Balaji Srinivasan contended that the retired IPS officer never attended a single review meeting convened by the Additional Director General of Police of the Idol Wing.

This was despite a clear direction by the apex court that he should report the progress of idol theft cases to the ADGP. There was no ambiguity in the line of command. The Supreme Court was clear that the ADGP is the head of the Idol wing force, he submitted.

Manickavel, who was appointed a special officer with the tenure of one year by the court on November 30 last year, filed the contempt petition in June alleging that impediments were being created in the investigation and several cases over missing idols had not been transferred to the wing despite court orders.

He has prayed the court to punish the chief secretary, home secretary and idol wing ADGP for contempt of court for alleged disobedience of its earlier orders.

When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, Additional Advocate General Srinivasan made a series of allegations against the special officer and accused him of demoralising the idol wing in the past one year.

This apart, Manickavel had issued orders to all his subordinate officers to not attend the review meetings held by the ADGP, he added.

Responding to this, the bench sought to know from Srinivasan as to why the state did not approach the high court or the Supreme Court citing such allegations.

To this, he said, "It was because we did not want to destroy the entire institution. Would it be appropriate for the state to point finger against the special officer who is an officer of this court?"

The bench then asked the counsel of Manickavel to submit details of charge sheets filed in cases investigated after the latter assumed charge as the special officer and he sought a day's time to gather the information.

Srinivasan submitted that the officer had not filed a single charge sheet during his tenure.

The court directed both the government and the special officer to submit written submissions on compliance and violations of its orders and posted the matter for further hearing to November 25.

It also ordered the government to file details about the funds allotted to the Idol Wing Special office after the appointment of Manickavel as Special officer. The court also declined a plea by the additional advocate general to defer the hearing of the contempt plea till a related case pending before the Supreme Court was decided.