National Commission for Scheduled Castes has no power to grant injunctions: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court recently held that while the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has the power to investigate any complaint it receives, the Commission does not have any power to grant injunctions, interim or permanent. .A bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy made the observation while setting aside an interim injunction order passed by the Commission in October 2022, restraining the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department from taking any further action in an anti-encroachment drive that the department had been conducting on a temple land. The Commission had directed the department to maintain status quo and not to take any action without informing it first.The bench said that the Commission passed such order while "overlooking the procedures." The Court was hearing a petition filed by one Jayaraman TN, who claimed to be a devotee of the said temple. Jayaraman sought setting aside of the status quo order. He told the Court that while the HR&CE department had issued eviction notices to 11 encroachers, one of them had gone to the Commission claiming he had been targeted by the department merely because he belonged to the scheduled caste community. The petitioner's counsel argued the Commission had no power to issue such injunction.The complainant to the Commission, one K Sinivasan, a respondent in the case, argued that when the pleadings before the Commission were already complete, it should be allowed to adjudicate upon the complaint and arrive at a conclusion..The High Court, however, agreed with the State government's and the petitioner's reliance on the Supreme Court's 1996 judgement in the case of All India Indian Overseas Bank SC and ST Employees' Welfare Association v. Union of India, which said that "Article 338(8) of the Constitution did not grant any specific or vivid power to the Commission 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 High Court ruled. Advocates Naveen Kumar Murthi, GV Mohan Kumar, and C Palanisamyappeared for the petitioner. Advocate G Ilangovan appeared for the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. State Government Pleader P Muthukumar appeared for the HR&CE Department. Senior Counsel Srinath Sridevan and advocate Bhagavath Krishnan appeared for the respondent, K Sinivasan, the original complainant. Special Government Pleader (HR&CE) NRR Arun Natarajan appeared for the district executive officer. .[Read Judgment]