The Madras High Court impleaded three top Tamil Nadu IAS officers on Monday and asked them to file an explanation for the delay committed in obtaining sanction from the Centre to prosecute two IAS officers.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh impleaded the vigilance commissioner, the public secretary, and the director of DVAC in the case related to alleged irregularities committed in awarding tenders in the Chennai and Coimbatore corporations.
The court angrily reacted to the “substantial unexplained delay” in acquiring Centre’s sanction required for prosecuting two IAS officers, KS Kandasamy (IAS:2009:TN) and K Vijaya Karthikeyan (IAS:2011:TN), who had served as deputy commissioner (works), GCC, and commissioner, Coimbatore Corporation, during that period.
Justice Venkatesh took a strong exception to the public secretary for sitting on the files from January 2024 up to August 2025, sent by the vigilance commissioner.
The judge issued the orders to implead the three bureaucrats while hearing a contempt petition seeking to punish the DVAC officials for non-filing of a chargesheet in the Rs 98.25-crore tender irregularities case.
The judge remarked that the vigilance commissioner and the director of DVAC failed to follow up the matter and sent reminders to the public department, which was sitting on the files. He added the court is taking the “extra yard” in order to ensure the trail of criminal proceedings commences at the earliest.
The court made a biting statement saying that the political executive is keen on protecting IAS officers in corruption cases but forgets to do its duty.
The hearing was adjourned to January 6, 2026.
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