The Madras High Court has directed the Central government to complete, within two months, the procedure for granting permission to prosecute two IAS officers in the tender irregularities case against former AIADMK minister S.P. Velumani, and to inform the Tamil Nadu government.
During the AIADMK regime from 2016 to 2021, when S.P. Velumani was the Minister for Municipal Administration, contracts for various works were awarded in municipal corporations including Chennai and Coimbatore. Arappor Iyakkam alleged that irregularities amounting to Rs. 98.25 crore had taken place in this. Following this, the anti-corruption police registered a case against S.P. Velumani and the contracting firms.
The Madras High Court had ordered that this case be investigated expeditiously and a charge sheet be filed. Alleging that this order was not implemented, the Arappor Iyakkam filed a contempt petition in the Madras High Court.
During the hearing of this case, the High Court had directed the Joint Secretary of the Union Government’s Department of Personnel and Training to appear via video conference and explain why there was a delay in granting approval to prosecute the two IAS officers, Kandasamy and Vijay Karthikeyan, and what the current status of the letter seeking approval was.
In this situation, when the case came up for hearing before Judge N. Anand Venkatesh on Wednesday, Sushil Kumar Patel, Joint Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training, appeared via video conference. The judge asked him, “Why has there been a delay in granting permission to prosecute the two IAS officers accused in this case?”
In response, the Union government’s Joint Secretary said that there are a large number of documents related to this case. Time is needed to examine them. The documents have been sent to the Central Vigilance Commission. We expect to receive the Commission’s response next week. After that, those documents will be sent to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The authority to grant permission to prosecute IAS officers rests with the Prime Minister’s Office. These procedures will take two months to complete. There will be no further delay. In this matter, priority will be given to completing the process of granting permission,” he assured.
Accepting this explanation from the central government, the judge ordered that an affidavit be filed explaining the procedures followed from November 2025 to the present regarding the process of granting permission to prosecute IAS officers. Further, the judge ordered the central government to complete the process of granting permission to prosecute the two IAS officers and to inform the Tamil Nadu government of that decision, and adjourned the hearing to November 12.
