Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court remarked that IAS officers are running a parallel government in the state, warning that this could have dangerous consequences.
The judge's comments came during the hearing of petitions challenging the state government's decision to cancel the allotment of Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) flats given to Tamil scholars under the “kanavu illam” scheme.
The scheme aims to honour Tamil scholars by allotting them houses, but the government had cancelled some of these allotments, including those to lyricist Vairamuthu and Tamil scholar Dr M Rajendran. The petitions sought to quash this cancellation.
In response to Justice Venkatesh's comments, Additional Advocate General J Ravindran said, “The government is taking exception to the comments of the Lordship. The government is run by Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin and not by any IAS officers,” during the post-lunch hearing. He stressed that it is the Chief Minister who runs the government, not the officers.
Senior counsel Father Xavier Arulraj, representing the petitioners, informed the court that the government had also appealed against earlier court orders that quashed the cancellation of TNHB flats allotted to writer and retired DGP G Thilagavathy and Tamil scholar Ilakkuvanar Maraimalai.
Justice Venkatesh responded, “This seems to have been done at the instance of the IAS officers. They are running a parallel government. This will create dangerous consequences.” The judge also noted that the allotment of houses under the “kanavu illam” scheme is linked to “emotions” which he felt the officers could not understand.
During the hearing, the Additional Advocate General said the government's appeal has led a division bench to stay the single judge's order. The judge then ordered the respondent authorities to file their replies and adjourned the case by four weeks.
Earlier, based on petitions filed by Thilagavathy and Maraimalai, Justice Venkatesh had quashed part of a government order from January 2024 that cancelled the allotment of TNHB houses to some scholars who had already benefited from another government scheme. He directed the government to restore the houses to those scholars.
However, the state government filed appeals against these orders. On Friday, a division bench comprising Justices J Nisha Banu and M Jothiraman granted an interim stay on Justice Venkatesh's orders.
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