Madras High Court Judge Faces Misbehaviour By Vadapalani Murugan Temple Staff During Visit, Witnesses Financial Irregularities

Justice Subramaniam, who had visited the temple along with his wife and daughter witnessed that the woman staff in the counter issued two 50 rupees ticket and one 5 rupee ticket in exchange of 150 rupees. Noticing that some others were also similarly issued 5 rupee tickets, the judge thought of informing the Executive Officer about the financial irregularities for appropriate action.

For this, he went to the office of the Executive Officer but was met with lukewarm response from the staff. The staff not only failed to provide the telephone number of the Executive Officer but also rejected that any such incident had happened in the temple. "They acted unbecoming of a public servant and dealt us in a rough, rude and arrogant manner," the judge said. Since there was no other option, the judge called upon the Registrar of the High Court for seeking police assistance.

Even with police assistance, the temple staff refused to provide the number of the Executive Officer and merely asked the judge to give a complaint and leave the place. Thereupon, the judge asked the Registrar to ask the Executive Officer to be present in court for registering the complaint.

Therefore, the court has directed the Commissioner to take all appropriate action against the staff members and conduct an enquiry about the supervisory lapses against the Executive Officer and in case of any lapses, initiate action against the Executive Officer and report the same to the court.