Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Nov 10 The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to make available the names of officials responsible for fraudulent procurements of books for libraries, initiate action, including suspension of officials, and tasked the DVAC to register an FIR.
A Division Bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and MD Sumathi, hearing a petition related to procurement of books, said though the facts tumbled out of the closet last week, no FIR has been registered.
In its order, the Madurai bench of Madras HC called upon the Director of Public Libraries to make available the names and details of those officials who were responsible for having made fraudulent procurements of so-called books during the last two years and more.
"We also direct the DVAC to forthwith register an FIR. The bank account of Agal Vilakku Publication as well as Mohan, Proprietor and others involved shall be frozen immediately. The government shall immediately take disciplinary action, including suspension of the officials involved."
The librarians shall forthwith take inventory of such suspect books and make them unavailable to the reading public.
The court tasked the authorities to apprise it of the exact amount spent towards procurement of such books.
"All the relevant records shall be made available (photocopies). In particular, a report shall be filed before us in the form of an affidavit by the Director of Public Libraries setting out the entire sequence and trajectory of events. The persons involved from top to bottom shall be identified and named."
The court, hearing the matter, said the public libraries of Tamil Nadu may meet the fate of the 'Library of Alexandria,' which was destroyed, if the procurement of books is not done in the public interest.
The court said: "Time has come to put in place a proper mechanism for such procurement. Tamil Nadu today boasts of a number of very good publishers who are bringing out excellent books. They must be encouraged. Their books must be bought. Procurement cannot be linked to payment of commission. The general public must be encouraged to spend time in libraries and the habit of reading must be inculcated."
The court directed that the procurement of books for public libraries must be in consonance with the government order dated March 7, 2024.
Referring to Ramasubbu, a resident of Nagercoil, running a literary forum, who is the petitioner in the matter, the high court said: "He brings to our notice the scandalous state of affairs prevalent in the procurement of books for public libraries in Tamil Nadu."
The petitioner describes the modus operandi in detail in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition. "His statements are not made in the air." He provides solid proof and justification, the court added. The petitioner points out that the books of writers of yore such as Thiru Vi Ka, A Sa Gnana Sambanthan, Na Parthasarathy have been re-published as if they are of recent vintage.
Though one of the conditions is that the year of the publication of the book should not be changed, instances are galore indicating the contrary. For instance, ''Veeram Vilaintha Varalatru Puthinangal Part-I' published in 2013, was nothing but a copy of Kalki's Sivakamiyin Sabatham. Jean Dreze is a renowned economist. In Kalaignar Centenary Library in Madurai, one came across a book “Democracy and People’s Right in the Contemporary World” attributing authorship to Jean Dreze. The economist has been foxed and baffled. He has denounced the book as fake, the court said.
"Books that have been nationalised and those books whose copyrights have expired were chosen for such re-publication. Since the legal heirs of the writers cannot complain of copyright violation, the fraudsters could resort to such re-publication and re-packaging with false titles and book covers with impunity."
The writ petition was filed way back in 2019. "Full five years have gone by...the rule of nontraverse will apply and we have to take it that the allegations made by the petitioner stand unrebutted," the court held.
