The State government on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that as on date, as many as five Commissions of Inquiry were functioning in the State, and of them, the Justice R. Regupathi commission, appointed in 2011 to probe into the alleged irregularities in the construction of a new Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex now used as a hospital, was the oldest.
Advocate General (AG) Vijay Narayan told Justice S.M. Subramaniam that so far, ₹4.52 crore had been allotted by the government for the Justice Regupathi commission which, in turn, had spent ₹4.11 crore. Providing a year-wise breakup, the court was informed that around ₹2 crore had been allotted to the commission since 2015, when the High Court had stayed its proceedings.
Query on spending
On the judge’s query as to why the commission had spent so much money even after it had been restrained by the High Court from proceeding further, the AG said it was restrained only from proceeding against former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who had filed a writ petition in the court challenging a questionnaire issued to him by the commission.
However, it could have been carrying out other functions such as recording evidence of officials of the Public Works Department and other related departments, he said.
Not convinced with the submission, the judge said the government should have suspended the operations of the commission immediately after the court order and prevented wastage of public money.
In so far as other commissions that were in existence, the court was told that Justice S.R. Singharavelu Commission of Inquiry, appointed on July 8, 2013, to probe into the circumstances that led to the death of Dalit youth E. Ilavarasan in Dharmapuri on July 4, 2013, was yet to submit its report though more than five years had elapsed since its constitution.
Jallikattu protests
This commission had been allotted a government office with one secretary, one section officer, one assistant, two drivers and three office assistants and the government had spent ₹2.06 crore on it as on July 31 this year.
The report of the commission was under compilation and expected to be submitted by the last week of this month, the government said.
Justice S. Rajeswaran Commission of Inquiry appointed on January 31 last year to inquire into the circumstances that led to violence during the jallikattu protests in Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and other parts of the State was also continuing its work and the government had so far spent ₹1.47 crore on this commission.
The other two commissions were Justice A. Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry appointed on September 25 last year to enquire into circumstances that led to the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission appointed on May 23 this year to probe into police firing in Thoothukudi during the anti-Sterlite protests.
These two commissions had incurred an expenditure of ₹32.75 lakh and ₹27.75 lakh, respectively, and they were continuing their work since they were relatively new.
It was also brought to the notice of the court that initially Justice S. Thangaraj was appointed in 2011 for enquiring into the Secretariat complex construction issue. He was subsequently replaced with Mr. Justice Regupathi.
After taking the details on file, Mr. Justice Subramaniam posted the writ petition filed by Mr. Karunanidhi in 2015 for further hearing on Thursday.