The Madras High Court recently held that, while the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has the authority to investigate any complaint it receives, it lacks the authority to issue interim or permanent injunctions.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy made the observation while setting aside an interim injunction order issued by the Commission in October 2022, which barred the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department from taking any further action in an anti-encroachment drive on temple land.
The Commission had directed the department to maintain the status quo and to refrain from taking any action without first informing it.
According to the bench, the Commission issued such an order while “overlooking the procedures.”
The division bench was hearing a petition filed by Jayaraman TN, who claimed to be a devotee of the temple in question. Jayaraman requested that the status quo order be overturned.
He informed the bench that while the HR&CE department had issued eviction notices to 11 encroachers, one of them had filed a complaint with the Commission, claiming that the department had singled him out because he belonged to the scheduled caste community.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the Commission lacked the authority to issue such an injunction.
The complainant to the Commission, one K Sinivasan, who was also a respondent in the case, argued that because the pleadings before the Commission were already complete, the Commission should be allowed to adjudicate on the complaint and reach a decision.
The bench, on the other hand, agreed with the State government’s and petitioner’s reliance on the Supreme Court’s 1996 decision in the case of All India Indian Overseas Bank SC and ST Employees’ Welfare Association v. Union of India, which stated that “Article 338(8) of the Constitution did not grant the Commission any specific or vivid power to grant an order of interim injunction.”
“In view of the law enunciated by the Apex Court in the case of All India Indian Overseas Bank SC and ST Employees’ Welfare Association and others, supra, we hold that the Commission lacks jurisdiction to pass the order of interim injunction dated 18.10.2022,” the order stated.
