Sand mining case: Madras HC summons T.N. Public Secretary after no law officer turns up to represent State

The Madras High Court on Thursday (November 28, 2024) summoned the Tamil Nadu Public Department Secretary, irked that no counsel had represented the State government in a batch of five writ petitions filed by it in 2023, which challenged the summons issued by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to five district Collectors over a money laundering probe in connection with illegal river sand mining operations.

The Madras High Court on Thursday (November 28, 2024) summoned the Tamil Nadu Public Department Secretary, irked that no counsel turned up to represent the State government in a batch of five writ petitions filed by it in 2023, which challenged the summons issued by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to five district Collectors over a money laundering probe in connection with illegal river sand mining operations.

A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and M. Jothiraman was shocked to find that no one represented the State government, though Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, assisted by ED Special Public Prosecutor N. Ramesh, told the Bench the writ petitions had become infructuous since the Collectors had appeared for inquiry pursuant to Supreme Court orders.

The ASG said, the High Court had in November 2023 stayed the summons issued by the ED and therefore, the latter had taken the order on appeal to the Supreme Court, which insisted that the Collectors of Ariyalur, Karur, Vellore, Thanjavur, and Tiruchi districts must respond to the summons. In compliance with the orders passed by the top court, the Collectors participated in the inquiry in April 2024.

Therefore, nothing survived in the five writ petitions filed jointly by the State government and the Collectors, and they had become infructuous, Mr. Sundaresan said. However, when the judges wanted to know who was appearing for the writ petitioners, a Special Government Pleader said that he was present in the court for another case and had no instructions in the ED summons batch.

After recording his submissions and expressing displeasure over no law officer having represented the State, the Division Bench directed the Public Secretary to appear before the court on Friday (November 29, 2024) and explain who had been engaged to represent the State government.