The Madras High Court today directed the Dharmapuri Revenue Divisional Officer to remain present in the court on July 2 and asked him to explain why Rs.25,000 should not be imposed as costs on him in connection with non-issuance of a community certificate.
A Division Bench, comprising Justice Sathish K Agnihotri and Justice M Venugopal, was passing orders on a plea filed by C Bangaru of Chikkampatti Village, Dharmapuri district, seeking a direction to the RDO for issuance of 'KURUMANS' Scheduled Tribe certificate to him and his children.
In his order, the judge directed the RDO to file an affidavit as to why "heavy cost to compensate the expenses" incurred by the petitioner be not imposed in view of the fact that the officer had kept the petitioner's application pending for three months without any rhyme or reason.
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According to the petitioner, he applied for the community certificate which was rejected by the sub-collector and referred to Tamil Nadu State Level Scrutiny Committee for verifying the community status which subsequently recommended to the RDO to issue the certificate on March 6.
Though he made a representation on March 19 to the RDO, there was no response and hence he approached the court, the petitioner said.
The court referred to an order passed by it in this regard that there was no "need of any re-examination of the competent authority/officer for the issuance of community certificate once a state-level scrutiny committee recommends to issue the community certificate."
It said that in view of the fact that the RDO had kept the application for the certificate pending for three months, he is directed to file an affidavit to explain why Rs.25,000 be not imposed on him to meet the expenses incurred by the petitioner for default committed by him.
The bench then posted the case for further hearing to July 2.
