Money that breaks a normal person is 25 lakh rupees. It was the very nightmare that C Poorna Chandran was looking at. He was one of the top officers in Tamil Nadu. The Director of Collegiate Education. The Madras High Court had directed him to pay this huge amount a few weeks ago. Out of his own personal bank account. Why? He did not go through the paperwork to hire a bunch of college workers
Nonetheless, the Supreme Court of India has just set aside that penalty. They spoke about the practical aspects of a government career. The state worker can’t simply stand up and challenge his government. A rule in writing must be adhered to by the officer most of the time. They are not revolutionaries. They are employees.
This is How The Trouble Started At The College.
Let’s now take a step back and see where this big mess came from. There is a town Udumalaipettai in Tiruppur district. GVSW College, Visalakshi College for Women is running here. It is a private college, but it receives funding from the government. The college was desperately in need of staff about few years ago. Not professors. Not lecturers. They had to have people to help maintain the physical structure.
All told, they added 12 to their staff. Sweepers. Scavengers. Gardeners. These are ordinary people working hard to do manual tasks. However months went past and they never even saw a pay cheque. The college management stated that it had official approval for 35 such posts, none of which are teaching jobs.
The government intervened and announced that things were different now. There were 2 new government orders issued in 2019. These orders were clear indications that more such jobs should be contracted out to private agencies. They can not be employed on a full-time basis and the State treasury can’t be responsible for the salary bill for an infinite time.
A dispute arose over a box of files.A controversy over a box of files.
So the file ended up in the hands of C Poorna Chandran. He was sitting in director’s chair. He reviewed the “rules in effect. The 2019 orders were very clear to him. He discovered he was only able to approve 11 postings under the old limit. The 12 people hired were suspended in space.The 12 new employees were suspended in space.
The college became completely irate and promptly appealed to the Madras High Court. The case was viewed by one judge initially. The judge told the government to clear the appointments right away. The judge concluded that those rules in 2019 had no application to private aided colleges. However, the higher education department wasn’t going to be easily intimidated. They thought they were right. So, they appealed to the single judge’s decision. That’s where things went sour for the officials who were involved in the paperwork.
The High Court is furious.The High Court is upset!
The matter was then passed on to a two judge division bench of the Madras High Court. It was a bench of Justices R Subramanian and G Arul Murugan. They looked very upset. They asked Poorna Chandran to come to the court in person and explain himself
He didn’t say much at all when he stood there. In their order he appeared to be a pillar and refused to answer careful questions, the judges said. The court believed that the department of education was concealing significant documents. They felt the officials were playing games to stop the truth from coming out in open court. The judges, then, dropped a big hammer. The state’s appeal was rejected as moot. Rather, they didn’t stop there. They slapped a fine of 50 lakh rupees on the government and the officials. This great expense was due to their extreme stubbornness, this court said.
The Massive Bill is divided into pieces.The Massive Bill is broken apart.
Following, the High Court divided this massive punishment into a number of parts. They demanded the government to collect 25 lakh rupees directly from Poorna Chandran out of 50 lakh rupees. Another 25 lakh rupees had to be extracted from others – from other lower officers who were alleged to have concealed the files in the bench.
The court also ordered that the 12 college workers must get 1.5 lakh rupees each as their pending salary. The balance of the penalties had to be given to 2 charities in Chennai. The two main associations in Nepal are Cancare Foundation and Nethrodaya. The day was a hard one for the State officials. They also had the threat of severe action from the department. Think about losing 25 lakhs only because you did your desk job in the manner you thought it was. There wasn’t a single option left other than Poorna Chandran knocking on the door of Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court steps in!The Supreme Court steps in!
The desperate plea was heard by Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice R Mahadevan in the top court. They considered all the circumstances. Their view of things was quite different from the High Court’s.
The bench noted a “trite and incontrovertible truth of the government profession. Each officer will operate according to the policy of the day. When Poorna Chandran held back the approval, the 2019 government order was still alive and kicking. He was not entitled to simply overlook a legitimate State order and approve the files as the college would wish. The Supreme Court bench said that the High Court totally overlooked this elementary principle. A servant cannot be punished for obeying his master. It was clear from the judges that it is not the role of the government worker to oppose the government itself.
Students form groups to pose questions to the State Government.
The Supreme Court also had its jaw dropped in surprise at the manner in which the state government behaved in all this chaos. The High Court was hammering on Poorna Chandran and doling out a 25 lakh penalty on him, while the state government was sitting on the sidelines, taking in all the proceedings. There was no defence of their own man.
