Self-immolation on court campus: Madras High Court directs authorities to visit village of deceased

After taking suo motu cognisance of a man setting himself ablaze inside the court premises, the Madras High Court on Friday directed the District Revenue Officer (DRO) of Kancheepuram district to conduct a "field visit" to the deceased's village to ascertain if his applications for a community certificate deserved to be rejected. .A Bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Krishna Kumar said that the DRO must visit the deceased's village and speak to his neighbours and local authorities to check if he did belong to the Narikuravar Scheduled Tribe, as claimed in the community certificate applications filed by his children that were rejected in September this year..On October 11, 49-year-old Velmurugan doused himself with fuel and set himself ablaze behind the family court building that is housed within the High Court campus. Before lighting the match, Velmurugan shouted that he was frustrated with the Kancheepuram district authorities refusing to issue community certificates to his son and daughter. A day after, he succumbed to the burns at a government hospital in Chennai.The High Court subsequently took suo motu cognisance of the incident..On Friday, Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran told the Bench that there was "no fault" on the part of the district authorities. "I can place the entire records here. The deceased person's son made an application online on September 20,2022 and it was transferred to the concerned officer on the same date. On September 26, it was rejected. There was no delay. He was not made to run from pillar to post as depicted in the newspapers," Ravindran said. The AAG said that the application was rejected because Velmurugan's son had failed to substantiate his claim that the family belonged to the Scheduled Tribe. He said that the applicant had merely annexed the community certificate of a man, Elangovan, who he claimed was his paternal uncle. The applicant had said that since Elangovan had a certificate attesting to the fact that he belonged to the Scheduled Tribe, he and his sister too must be issued similar certificates. On perusal of the papers, the district authorities, however, realised that the father's name of Elangovan and the deceased Velmurugan were different, Ravindran told the Bench. "If they were indeed brothers, they should have had the same father. So Velmurugan's children's application was rejected," he added..The Court, however, questioned whether the DRO or the district collector should have conducted a field visit to ascertain his caste status."Generally, if a person comes to you for a certificate, do you just continue sitting on your chair and take a decision? Or do you do an inspection? If I were the collector, I would have really gone to the village, visited his left side neighbour and his right side neighbour and asked them some questions," Justice Raja said..The Court insisted that the DRO should now conduct a proper field visit and make an inquiry. It thus directed him to visit Velmurugan's residence, his ancestral village and the school where his children studied. Details of such inquiry are required to be submitted to the Court within two weeks."Field inspection means somebody living on that same village, same street, at least one person should have been spoken to. We are giving you two weeks. Go to the village, visit the boy's school. Get all details. We want a proper inquiry. Else this suo motu petition will not serve any purpose," the Court concluded.