Madras High Court Dismisses Plea Challenging Appointment Of 4 Senior IAS Officers As TN Govt Spokespersons, Imposes ₹1 Lakh Cost

The bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan said that the IAS officers were appointed as the State Government's spokesperson and not as the ruling party's spokesperson. The court also noted that no laws had been violated at the time of making the appointments and thus, was not inclined to entertain the plea. The court thus dismissed the plea with Rs. 1 Lakh costs.

The plea, filed by Advocate Dr M Sathya Kumar stated that public servants should not be used for party's obligations. It was submitted that by appointing the officers as government spokesperson, a role which does not have a legal definition or legislative backing, there was a risk of conflicting government communication with political messaging. It has been contended that by appointing civil servants to serve the interest of the ruling political party, the very purpose of Constitutional mandate, constitutional morality, and principles of federalism is defeated.

The plea challenged Press Release No. 1602, issued by the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), Ministry for Tamil Development, Information and Publicity appointing the IAS officers to engage with the media and disseminate public information. As per the press release, each IAS officer is assigned to various department of the Government and all official statements relating to important achievements, schemes, and developments of the concerned department would be disseminated by the officer.

It was submitted that the government had failed to adhere to the due process of law by issuing a Government Order. It was also argued that the press release is not a legally valid instrument and cannot be treated as an official act of appointment. The petitioner submitted that the press release is a non-binding public communication which merely reports or conveys information, achievement, etc, and does not have any legislative backing. Thus, the petitioner argued that the appointments, made by way of a press release, are void ab initio, unconstitutional, illegal, and arbitrary.

When the plea was taken up today, Sathya Kumar submitted that the due process of law was not followed for appointing the IAS officers. It was submitted that the appointment wade made through a press release which did not have any legal validity. Kumar also submitted that such an appointment was made for the first time and it had to go through a constitutional test.

Though Kumar argued that it was a political appointment, the court was not inclined to accept the submission. The court noted that the appointment was only to disseminate information and was not against any law.

Case Title: Dr. M Sathya Kumar v. The Government of Tamil Nadu and Others

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 266

Case No: WP 29528 of 2025