Chennai: Madras high court has held that the Governor of Tamil Nadu is not disqualified from appointing R. Santhanam, a retired IAS official, as the high power inquiry committee to probe into the allegation of Professor Nirmala Devi luring college girl students into sex work.
Dismissing a public interest litigation filed by S. Selvagomathi, challenging the appointment of Santhanam as the high power inquiry committee, a division bench comprising Justices M. Govindaraj and G.R. Swaminathan said, “The petitioner has placed zero material before us to come to the conclusion that the chancellor/governor of Tamil Nadu, Madurai Kamaraj University, stands implicated in the instant case. The petitioner has not demonstrated as to how the conduct of enquiry by R. Santhanam, IAS, would affect the rights of anybody.
The counsel for the petitioner has not drawn our attention to any statutory provision prohibiting the appointment by the Governor. What has not been prohibited by the Act or the rules cannot be prohibited by a judicial fiat”. Referring to the contention that the Governor was disqualified from directing an enquiry, as he himself was implicated, the bench said, “We have no doubt in our mind that this contention has been advanced recklessly. If the evidence in support of the facts wasnot pleaded and annexed to the petition, the court will not entertain the point. It was not sufficient for the petitioner to merely make an allegation and leave it at that. The petitioner has not filed a plaint before this court. Rather, she has filed a PIL. Therefore, in the affidavit filed in support of the petition and in the typed set of papers annexed to the affidavit not only the facts but also the evidence in proof of such facts have to be pleaded and annexed to it,” the bench said.
In this case, the petitioner has not claimed that the facts set out in the newspaper reports were verified to be true, the bench added.
Stray references in newspaper reports cannot be relied on and do not constitute proof. There was no ground to come to the conclusion that the Governor himself was implicated in the instant case. By virtue of his being the Governor of Tamil Nadu, he is also the Chancellor of the Madurai Kamaraj University. “Against such a high constitutional authority, allegations cannot be recklessly or casually made. We are of the view that the petitioner has scandalised the Governor without any basis. We, therefore, hold that the Governor is not disqualified from appointing Santhanam as the high powered enquiry committee, the bench added.
The bench said there was no provision forbidding the Governor from constituting an enquiry committee. No one has complained of any right violation.
