Court fines TN for lag in key appointment in granite scam

Criticises state govt and imposes fine of Rs 10,000 for not obeying court's instructions in the appointment

The Madras High Court has imposed a fine on the Tamil Nadu government for delaying the designated appointment of civil services officer, U Sagayam, as the special investigating officer to look into the granite scam.

High court chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice M Sathyanarayanan criticised the state government and had imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for not obeying the court's instructions in the appointment. It had ordered the state government to appoint Sagayam as the special investigating officer.

The court added that the official should visit these mines and submit a report on the alleged violations to it.

The high court on September 11 had appointed Sagayam to probe into contracts pertaining to granite mining across Tamil Nadu, besides reporting irregularities in the mining licences.

Earlier, state government had approached the Supreme Court with an appeal against the appointment of Sagayam as investigating officer and also filed a review petition with the high court.

However, both were dismissed by the respective courts. Sagayam has brought illegal mining activities in the state to the public fore alleging that these had resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 16,000 crore to the state's exchequer.