The Madras High Court today imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 each on the Secretary to the Tamil Nadu Governor and members of state public service commission (TNPSC) for not filing their counter affidavits to a petition challenging appointment of the members and directed them to file their responses within two weeks.
Taking a serious note of the failure on part of the Secretary to the Governor as well as the appointee members of TNPSC in filing the responses, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh, in their order said "whoever wishes to file the counter affidavit within two weeks is subject to deposit of Rs.5,000 cost."
The bench, after imposing the cost, posted the matter to June 13.
The order was passed when PILs by senior DMK leader T K S Elangovan and PMK came up for hearing.
The petitions challenged the appointment of 11 persons, including a former IAS officer, as members of Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) by Governor K. Rosaiah on January 31 last alleging that they had been chosen as they owed allegiance to ruling AIADMK.
The court had last month directed the respondents to file their responses by March 4. While the state government filed its reply, other respondents did not do so.
When the matter came up today, senior counsel P Wilson, who appeared on behalf of DMK's T K S Elangovan, argued that the deliberation that took place between the government and the Governor had to be placed before the court for its perusal.
The procedure adopted in the selection of the members also needs to be placed before it.
He claimed one of the members, who was 'unsuitable' for extension of service beyond the age of 58 as District Judge, had now found to be suitable by the government as a member of TNPSC.
