Madras High Court gets cracking on tribal welfare issues

Chennai: Based on a report filed in Deccan Chronicle titled TN tribes face extinction, the Madras high court on Wednesday took suo motto action and impleaded two respondents to a writ petition on tribal welfare. In a major boost to the oppressed tribal fraternity, the bench comprising justice M. Venugopal and justice P.D. Audikesavalu expanded the scope of a writ petition by appointing IFS officer Archana Kalyani, former director of Tribal Welfare, as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter.

The bench observed that for an effective and efficient administration there was need for suo motto action in this case and passed orders to include the registrar general and census commissioner, ministry of home affairs and the director of tribal research centre, TN to be respondents in a writ petition filed by tribal welfare associations.

“There was an article in DC saying that the TN tribes face extinction and the pendency in issuing certificates is alarming. Though newspaper reports cannot be taken as documents or evidence before the court of law, the court is concerned about the tribal welfare,” observed the bench. The court discussed the efficacy of state department officials in resolving the issues related to tribes. Received wisdom is that tribes reside in hilly terrain, but this news item says that more tribes are now living in plains of Dharmapuri and Thiruvannamalai, bench said.  

The judicial staff also shared copies of DC with the battery of lawyers present at court hall no. 6 that discussed the issue for more than two and half hours. The matter is posted for next hearing on September 23.

Alleging that there were prejudiced officers in the state Adi Dravidar department who were holding up the welfare of tribes, including in the issuance of caste certificates, senior lawyer R. Vaigai quoted a contempt case against the state Adi Dravidar and Tribal welfare department secretary P. Annamalai. DC had broken that story too in November 2015 with an audio tape transcript in which a controversial IAS officer alleged that state pleaders and judges were part of a corrupt cartel that collects money and renders 'justice' for deserving STs to avail caste certificates.