Principal Secretary of Tamil Nadu government, Paneenthra Reddy, today appeared before the High Court bench here in connection with contempt proceedings against him for not paying compensation to a scavenging worker who died while manually cleaning a septic tank against the rules in Ramanathapuram in 2004.
He told the court that the government had sought the legal clarification whether it should provide compensation to the family of the victim Arumugam even if he died while cleaning the septic tank of a private company.
Justice S Venugopal, who heard the submission of Reddy, posted the case for hearing on July four and asked him to file a counter.
The High court had issued statutory notice to Reddy for not paying compensation to the family of the Arumugam who died when he was doing scavenging work in 2004.
Valaiyakka, the victim's mother had filed a petition before the High Court Bench here seeking Rs 10 lakh as compensation, citing a direction issued by the Supreme Court in a case that if a person died while doing manual scavenging then the government should give the family of the victims Rs ten lakh.
The High Court Bench had on June 19 last year said that "in the light of the apex court judgement and in view of the pathetic conditions of the petitioner's family, the Principal Secretary should provide relief (Rs 10 lakh ) within a period of six weeks."
After receiving the copy of the order from the court, the government had given Rs 3 lakh as compensation.
Valaiyakka moved the court seeking to order payment of the balance Rs seven lakh.
