HC: can’t ’x time limit On the request of police, The Hindu to ascertain veracity of reporter dons o‚cial’s role to save a life community certi’catesnd

Unless there is a foolproof system to issue community certi†cates only to genuine applicants, no time limit or limitation can be prescribed by the courts for subjecting those certi†cates to veri†cation if any doubts or complaints were raised regarding their genuineness, the Madras High Court has ruled.

A Division Bench of Justices S.S. Sundar and N. Senthilkumar held that the community certi†cates of those who got employed before 1995 could also be veri†ed any time, and that the inquiry regarding the genuineness of the certi†cates could continue even after the retirement of the employees concerned.

Recalling the Supreme Court ruling that had termed the conduct of gaining public employment with fake community certi†cates an “egregious fraud on the Constitution,” the Bench said those who had deprived jobs to genuine Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe candidates “do not deserve sympathy or indulgence from courts...”

The verdict was delivered while dismissing writ petitions †led by three retired employees of the Chennai Port Trust (CPT) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) challenging the orders of the State Level Scrutiny Committee (SLSC) that the scheduled tribe community certi†cates used by them to secure employment in the 1980s were fake. The petitioners had refused to cooperate with the inquiry and relied upon three Supreme Court orders, wherein it was held that conduct of inquiry regarding the genuineness of community certi†cates, even after retirement from service, would only be academic and serve no purpose.

They also cited an O£ce Memorandum issued in 2020 directing the SLSCs to verify the community certi†cates of only those employees who had been appointed after 1995.

However, the Bench refused to accept their contentions.

Trips to Valparai have always been close to my heart for various reasons. Perhaps I might spot the enigmatic Nilgiri Tahr on the cližs en route the hill station or feel the cool breeze coming from the misty plantations.

But a journey to Valparai on a reporting assignment on Thursday turned to be the most satisfying one for a dižerent reason. Accompanied by my photo journalist colleague M. Periasamy, I started our trip from Coimbatore to Valparai early in the morning. While I wanted to document certain behavioural aspects of the rare Liontailed macaque, Mr. Periasamy was trying his luck in photographing a rare bird.

As we crossed the ghat section with its 40 hairpin bends and reached Iyyerpadi around 8.45 a.m., a tea estate around 105 km ož Coimbatore, a police constable stopped our car and requested us to disembark. A †re tender was parked on the side of the road and people had thronged the spot in large numbers. Soon, I spotted a man atop a high tension electric cable tower in the middle of the tea estate. The policeman told us he was a tea estate worker, who had some issues with the management, and was threatening to jump from there. “We want you to pose as an o£cial from the Labour Department and hold talks with him. Please convince him that his grievances would be addressed and ask him to come down,” the policeman said.

I told him that hailing from Kerala my Tamil wasn’t great. He assured me that wasn’t an issue. “Just pose as an o£cial and talk to him. You can do it, sir,” the cop instilled con†dence in me and I agreed.

He then guided me to the power transmission tower where workers were appealing to the employee to come down. As I appealed to him to come down, the worker shot back, “What is your designation? How could you come so fast from Coimbatore?” In a quick response, I told him that I was in Pollachi and that I was directed by my o£ce to reach the venue faster.

Though the policeman and myself didn’t have a thought about the designation, the former said: “He is an Assistant Commissioner from Labour Department. He has come to settle your grievance.”

I asked the man again to come down to settle the grievance. He was atop the tower from 7.30 a.m, and †nally agreed to come down. Though †re brigades ožered to help, he said he would alight by himself, and came down by 9 a.m., completely exhausted. He was rushed to hospital, and Mr. Periasamy and myself then headed for our work.

After spending the entire day at the hill station, we were not lucky enough to get the desired outcome of the reporting trip. “After all, it appears that our assignment today was to save the man’s life,” said Mr. Periasamy as we were heading back to Coimbatore in the evening. The credit will of course go to the constable.

Neither the policeman nor this reporter had the opportunity to get introduced to each other at the spot as things had turned dramatic after the rescue operation with the man’s emotionally stressed wife swooning. Late at night, I called up the Valparai police station and found out that the name of the real hero of this operation was S. Vel and spoke to him. Not only did he thank me profusely but said the worker, Veeramani, 58, was almost exhausted when we negotiated with him and would have fallen ož the tower had the operation been delayed. (Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416. and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 04424640050).

M. PERIASAMY The tea plantation worker atop the high tension electric cable tower at Valparai.