All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Member of Parliament C Ve Shanmugam has filed a contempt of court petition against Tamil Nadu Public Department Secretary Reeta Harish Thakkar and Health Secretary P. Senthil Kumar for allegedly violating a Madras High Court order prohibiting the naming of government schemes after living personalities.
The petition follows the launch of the ‘Nalam Kaakkum Stalin’ health scheme on 2 August 2025, just days after the High Court had issued an interim order on 31 July 2025, barring the state from using the names of living individuals in any official welfare programme.
The contempt plea is expected to be listed before the first Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan.
In an affidavit filed through his counsel K. Gowtham Kumar, Shanmugam said the Bench had issued a “detailed interim order” clarifying that “the nomenclature of no government scheme should bear the name of a living personality.”
The MP pointed out that the Tamil Nadu Public Department Secretary had filed a petition on 1 August 2025, within hours of the order being made public, seeking a clarification that the interim order would not apply to the ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ and ‘Nalam Kaakkum Stalin’ schemes. However, the clarification or modification petition was not listed for hearing that day, and the court had not passed any subsequent order granting exemption or relief.
Despite this, the state government went ahead with the launch of the ‘Nalam Kaakkum Stalin’ scheme on 2 August 2025, allegedly in direct violation of the court’s directive.
In his affidavit, Shanmugam said the act amounted to contempt of court. “The filing of the modification/clarification petition by itself was sufficient to prove the officials were well aware of the prohibition imposed by the court on naming government schemes after living personalities,” he stated.
“In effect, the respondents have reduced the modification petition to a mere formality and an eyewash to escape the clutches of contempt and have proceeded to use the name of the scheme (Nalam Kaakkum Stalin) in contravention to the orders passed by the court. The respondents have used the modification petition as a shield against their illegalities. They cannot be allowed to blow hot and cold at the same breath,” the affidavit read.
(With inputs from The Hindu)
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