CHENNAI: A quo-warranto writ petition questioning under what authority Budhi Chandran is holding the post of minister in the TN Cabinet, has been filed in the Madras High Court.Petitioner KA Musthafa, DMK councillor of Udhagamandalam Municipality, also filed a writ petition praying for a direction to the Chief Minister to remove Chandran from the post.The First Bench comprising Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam, before which the public interest writ petitions came up for hearing on Thursday, said that the question of maintainability would be decided at the time of admission of the petitions.Musthafa contended that Chandran had violated the oath taken at the time of swearing in as minister on May 16 last. He was first given the portfolio of Tourism and later shifted to the Food and Civil Supplies Department. The petitioner said that Chandran had misused his official post by committing certain irregularities. Chandran had issued a letter on June 23 to the GM, Nilgiris District Milk Producers Co-operative Union, to cancel the Aavin booth agencies given to three persons and to allot them to another set of persons of his choice.Chandran was formerly a black-listed contractor. Utilising the election of his wife as a ward member of Kil Kundha town panchayat, he used to take up civil works. As a minister, he insisted payment of Rs 3 lakh, which was withheld for a long period for his substandard contract work and got the money.After becoming a Minister, he directed the committee constituted under the TN Hill Areas (Preservation of Trees) Act not to grant permission to lift dry, wind fa llen and aged trees including the silver oak trees. All this showed the abuse and misuse of office by Chandran, the petitioner contended.
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