TN govt pulled up for delaying prosecution of two IAS officers in tender scam

The Tamil Nadu government was pulled up by the court for delaying prosecution of two IAS officers in the alleged tender scam. The govt invited the wrath of the court on Tuesday for the inordinate delay committed by it in sending the proposal for obtaining sanction for prosecuting two IAS officers in the alleged tender irregularities case.

The government came up with an explanation before the court, saying exhaustive scrutiny of papers running to huge volumes consumed considerable time and that the delay was not deliberate. The public secretary further added that the delay was purely “administrative and procedural” in nature and “devoid of malafide intention”.

The submission was made during the hearing of the contempt petition moved by Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam. The petition sought punishment for the DVAC officials for not filing a chargesheet in the Rs 98-crore tender irregularities committed during the tenure of SP Velumani in the previous AIADMK government.

The government received the reports from the vigilance commissioner on January 5, 2024, but sent the proposal for sanction in August 2025. According to the govt pleas, the papers required high-level consideration and approval at the appropriate administrative level, which caused delay.

As per the directions of the court, three affidavits were filed on behalf of the public secretary Reeta Harish Thakkar, vigilance commissioner K. Manivasan, and the director of DVAC Abhay Kumar Singh. The court had asked for an explanation from the state govt for the delay in sending the proposal for sanction.

The public secretary submitted that the papers relating to the two IAS officers accounted for about 46,000 pages, which consumed considerable time in making detailed scrutiny of the records and subjecting them to rigorous tests as per the service rules and procedures.

Public secretary Reeta Harish Thakkar submitted that the delay caused in processing the proposal for sanction was not deliberate, as the department has to examine the investigation report at multiple levels and “legal scrutiny.”

To substantiate its claim, the govt also cited the DoPT’s instructions, saying thousands of pages of documents had to be translated into English from the vernacular language and submitted along with the proposal for sanction of prosecution.