The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted a final opportunity to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) to file a counter affidavit to a 2020 writ petition moved by Murasoli Trust, associated with the DMK, against an inquiry into a complaint of it occupying over 12 grounds of Panchami land in Kodambakkam in Chennai.
Justice Anita Sumanth accepted a request made by Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan to grant him time till June 27 to file the counter affidavit and also asked the law officer to produce the rules of procedure, if any, followed by the national commission while inquiring into complaints received by it on issues concerning Scheduled Castes.
The interim order was passed after senior counsel P. Wilson, representing the petitioner trust, contended that the commission had no authority whatsoever to usurp the jurisdiction of a civil court which alone could decide the title of a property. He sought a writ of prohibition restraining the commission from proceeding forward with the inquiry.
