Arappor Iyakkam filed a contempt petition against the investigating officers for delaying the prosecution for a considerable number of years.
The Madras High Court on Monday summoned the public secretary to explain that it was sitting on files seeking sanction to prosecute two IAS officers in the ₹98.25 crore corporation contract irregularities case against former AIADMK minister SP Velumani from January 5, 2024 to August 30, 2025.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh issued the orders after suo motu accompanying the Secretary of State as one of the respondents in a contempt of court petition filed by anti-corruption organization Arappor Iyakkam against investigating officials for delaying the prosecution for a considerable number of years.
The judge made both the vigilance commissioner and the director of vigilance and anti-corruption as respondents and directed them to respond by January 6 as to why they did not take up the issue with the public department and reminded him to send the files to the Center to seek sanction.
Justice Venkatesh agreed with the petitioner’s counsel V Suresh that the anti-corruption outfit had to knock on the door of the court at every stage of the case, starting with the filing of the complaint, and obtain a direction to the police to discharge its statutory duties.
The court noted that the irregularities in the award of contracts allegedly occurred in the Chennai and Coimbatore Municipal Corporations when Mr. Velumani served as Municipal Minister from 2014 to 2018. A First Information Report was then registered against him and others in 2021.
Although almost four years have passed since then, the trial of the accused has not yet started despite Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam filing several requests to speed up the trial. Justice Venkatesh has now been detained over the second contempt of court petition filed by the organization.
While going through the case documents, the judge found that the Vigilance Commissioner (in the rank of Additional Chief Secretary) had on 5 January 2024 forwarded a recommendation to the Public Secretary to obtain sanction to prosecute IAS officers KS Kandasamy and K Vijaya Karthikeyan in connection with the case.
However, the recommendation was kept in cold storage in the office of the Public Administration Department from January 5, 2024 and was handed over to the Center only on August 30, 2025. The judge expressed dismay at such a lethargic attitude in prosecuting the IAS officers and wanted to know if the delay was deliberate.
“The Prevention of Corruption Act cannot be limited to lower level employees like Tahsildars, VAOs, RTOs and so on. If the system does not work equally willingly towards ministers, IAS officers and judges, people will lose faith in the system,” Justice Venkatesh told the DVAC officials present in the courtroom.
Published – 15 Dec 2025 20:48 IST
