Madras High Court appoints one member judicial commission to probe human excreta in water tank

Chennai: The Madras High Court has appointed a single-member judicial commission of retired Justice M. Satyanarayanan to probe the presence of human excreta in an overhead water tank supplying water to the Dalit colony in Vengavayil in Pudukottai district.

The court directed the commission to visit the Vengavayil Dalit hamlet and submit a report within two months. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice Bharathi Chakravarthi constituted the single-member commission.

The order follows a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a person, Rajkamal from Veppampattu in Tiruvallur district. He had filed the PIL seeking a CBI probe into the matter. The petitioner said that even after 70 years of Independence, untouchability exists in the country and added that social justice which was offered in the Constitution was also a long dream for the SC/ST communities in the country.

He said that the SC/ST people were considered as second-class citizens in the country. He submitted before the court that even after constituting a CB-CID team, there was no progress in the case and requested a CBI investigation into the matter.

Tamil Nadu additional advocate general R. Raveendran submitted the report of the CB-CID investigating officer and informed the court that the agency had interrogated 147 people in the case and added that there were contradictory statements from these witnesses. He said that due to the contradictory statements, further investigation is being conducted.

The human faeces were found in the drinking water tank in December 2022.