Sagayam panel gets extra time to inspect mines

Chennai: The Madras high court has granted six more weeks to IAS officer U. Sagayam, appointed as a special officer/legal commissioner by the court to visit and inspect mines in Madurai district, to complete the probe and submit a report. Acceding to the request made by counsel for Sagayam to grant four weeks’ time, a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, posted to July 23 further hearing of the case.

Closing the interlocutory application filed by social activist ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy, which sought a direction to appoint Sagayam to inspect the illegal mining, the bench had on September 21, 2014, appointed Sagayam to probe the matter and submit a report. In November 2014, the bench clarified that the probe would be restricted to Madurai district. In March this year, the bench extended the deadline for filing the report by eight more weeks.

When the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, his counsel sought four weeks more, stating that some part of the questionnaire was awaited from the police and other authorities as per the list. He also sought an additional amount of Rs 2 lakh for expenses of the commission.

The bench said, “The authorities to ensure that the information is furnished in the next two weeks. The prayer for additional amount of Rs 2 lakh is allowed subject to furnishing of the account by the commission.”