The irregularities in the procurement of books for Tamil Nadu’s public libraries have returned to the Madras High Court, with a contempt of court petition filed before its Madurai Bench accusing the authorities of disobeying a set of directions issued by the court in June 2024 to ensure transparency in book procurement.
A contempt of court petition has been filed before the Madurai Bench of #MadrasHighCourt for disobedience of an order passed by Justices R. Mahadevan (now a Supreme Court judge) and G.R. Swaminathan in 2024 for ensuring transparency in procurement of books to public libraries. Justice Swaminathan has told the newly appointed Director of Public Libraries R.V. Shajeevana that what has come to light recently is blatant disobedience of the orders passed by the court and that a Bench comprising himself and Justice M.D. Sumathi intends to take very serious note of the issue. Backgrounder 👇
— Mohamed Imranullah S (@imranhindu) November 10, 2026
The development comes amid the controversy surrounding the procurement scam at the Periyar Arivulagam library in Coimbatore, where several books containing fabricated historical information, questionable authorship and factual inaccuracies were reportedly purchased at inflated prices.
As reported in The Hindu, Justice GR Swaminathan, who was part of the 2024 Bench and is now hearing the issue along with Justice M D Sumathi, has reportedly taken serious note of the alleged non-compliance. During a recent interaction, Justice Swaminathan is said to have told the newly appointed Director of Public Libraries, R V Shajeevana, that the irregularities now coming to light amounted to blatant disobedience of the earlier court orders. The Bench indicated that it intended to take the matter very seriously.
The 2024 judgment, delivered by a Division Bench comprising then Acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan (now a Supreme Court judge) and Justice GR Swaminathan, had already flagged serious irregularities in the procurement of books for Tamil Nadu’s public libraries, describing the situation as a “scam” and directing the government to institute an inquiry.
The judgment was delivered on 19 June 2024, in a writ petition filed by S Krishnan, who runs a literary forum in Nagercoil. Originally filed in 2019, the petition alleged large-scale irregularities in the purchase of books for public libraries and sought transparent procurement procedures.
The petitioner had detailed how publishers allegedly repackaged old and nationalised books under different titles and authors’ names to secure repeated government purchase orders. The court cited the example of Veeram Vilaintha Varalatru Puthinangal Part-I, published in 2013, which it said was essentially a reproduction of Kalki’s Sivakamiyin Sabatham.
The Bench also pointed out that books by established writers such as Thiru Vi Ka, A. Sa. Gnana Sambanthan and Na. Parthasarathy had allegedly been republished as new works, with altered titles and book covers.
Under the existing procurement norms, a book purchased for a public library could not be purchased again for the next five years. However, the court found that this condition had been flagrantly violated, with nationalised books allegedly being reprinted under different titles and authors’ names and purchased repeatedly using public funds.
“This is nothing short of a scam,” the Bench had observed.
The court also referred to an 11 January 2019 report in The Hindu, which quoted publishers alleging that nearly 99% of books printed specifically for government library orders were unavailable in the open market. Another publisher had alleged that some publishing houses operated multiple publishing labels primarily to secure government orders, while quality had suffered. The report also carried allegations that a substantial proportion of government library orders went to publishers willing to pay commissions to officials.
Significantly, the court noted that the government had failed to file a counter-affidavit for five years despite the allegations raised in the petition. Invoking the rule of non-traverse, the Bench said the allegations had to be treated as unrebutted.
Although the government subsequently produced Government Order G.O. Ms. No. 69 dated 7 March 2024, introducing the Transparent Book Procurement Policy, the judges made it clear that the new policy could not absolve officials of responsibility for alleged irregularities committed in the past.
“The issuance of G.O cannot absolve the department of the misdeeds committed in the past by the officials,” the judgment stated.
The Court’s Directions
Allowing the writ petition, the Bench issued a series of directions to overhaul the procurement process and ensure public accountability.
It directed the Director of Public Libraries to maintain a dedicated, user-friendly and functional website through which all proposed book purchases would be publicly notified. The department was also instructed to email notifications to publishers operating in Tamil Nadu who had published at least 200 books and maintain a database of such publishers.
Once books were shortlisted for procurement, their details, including book covers, were to be uploaded on a separate webpage. The public and publishers were to be given one month to submit comments, objections and suggestions. These submissions were to be considered before finalising the procurement list and retained on the website without deletion.
More importantly, the court directed the government to constitute a committee to investigate the allegations raised by the petitioner, obtain the views of publishers and publish a comprehensive report within five months. The report was to catalogue the unfair practices identified and recommend action against the officials concerned.
The government was further directed to publish an action-taken report within six months thereafter, with prosecution of those responsible wherever necessary.
However, there has been no publicly established evidence of the government having completed the inquiry and published the reports mandated by the court.
The latest controversy surrounding Periyar Arivulagam has once again raised questions about whether the safeguards ordered by the High Court were effectively implemented.
Following allegations that books containing fabricated information and fictitious author names had been procured for the Coimbatore library, School Education Minister A Rajmohan announced an inquiry and approached the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). The government has also faced demands for a wider investigation into book purchases across public libraries in Tamil Nadu.
The contempt petition now brings the focus back to the 2024 judgment and whether the authorities complied with the High Court’s explicit directions on transparency, investigation and accountability in the procurement of public library books.
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