Plea against railway official for misusing powers dismissed

The Times of India: Madurai: Saturday, October 27, 2012.

The Madras high court bench in Madurai has dismissed a petition seeking action against the chief medical superintendent (CMS) of Southern Railway's Madurai Division for misusing her official capacity.

V Gopala Krishnan of S S Colony in Madurai retired as senior division extension educator (family welfare) Railway Hospital, Madur. Krishan, who was also a trade union activist, filed a writ petition before the HC bench here.

In his petition, the petitioner had alleged that the CMS, Kasthuribai Jeyaraj, made use of her official capacity for her personal use and gained pecuniary advantage. He contended in his petition that the CMS has overall control of all medical services in the Madurai division. Kasthuribai, who has her permanent residence at V M Chatiram in Tirunelveli district, regularly used to fix inspections on Friday evenings and conducted another inspection on Monday morning at Tirunelveli and claimed Travelling Allowance (TA), he charged.

She claimed TA without attending any work by furnishing false submissions. In fact, she claimed TA in the name of attending a gynaecology camp at Tirunelveli on May 15, 2010. But she had not attended that camp. Her act amounted to swindling of Southern Railway resources, the petitioner mentioned.

He also said that the petition under Right to Information (RTI) Act by another trade union activist, furnished the details that she claimed TA for more than 10 occasions between March and October in 2010 in the name of inspections. The eight months data shows her claims were false. If her entire claims are verified, more truth will come, the petitioner stated in the petition.

Even though complaints were made to the chief vigilance officer (CVO) of the Southern Railway, no fruitful action was taken against the illegal activities of the CMS. Hence, the court should direct the CVO to take action on his complaint, the petitioner prayed the high court.

The petition was heard by Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma who dismissed it for want of locus standi.

In the order, the judge said that the writ petition is not maintainable as the petitioner does not have any locus standi. The petitioner, as any other citizen of India, if aggrieved, can report the matter to the police and disclose the commission of offence. The court under Article 226 of the Indian constitution cannot deal with the complaint for want of locus standi of the petitioner. Hence, it is dismissed, the judge said.