Chances are that Thyagarajan of Madurai, an executive engineer with the Government of Tamil Nadu who tried to cheat a small time businessman in his neighbourhood and PM Elavarasan who forged documents to annexe a plot of land in a Chennai suburb would think not twice but many times over before venturing out to commit such offences in future, thanks to the ingenuity of two judges in the Madras High Court.
Perumal, a small-time businessman of Madurai had lent Rs90,000 to Thyagarajan, a Tamil Nadu Government staff in 2003. The borrower gave a promissory note agreeing to pay back the loan with 12 per cent interest. But Thyagarajan paid neither the interest nor the principal amount.
In 2005, Perumal sent a legal notice to Thyagarajan. Since Thygarajan chose to ignore the notice, Perumal approached the Munsif Court of Melur with a civil suit. The Munsif asked Thyagarajan in January 2006 to pay back the loan with interest. Thygarajan approached the Subordinate Judge of Melur challenging the verdict of the Munsif. But the Subordinate Judge upheld the Munsif’s verdict in October 2011.
Thyagarajan changed his strategy and approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court with new alibis and arguments. He submitted before the court that he had borrowed only Rs10,000 from Perumal in 1997 and he had repaid Rs2,000 per month for seven years. Thayagarajan’s argument was that he had paid back more than Rs2,00,000 as interest alone. He also claimed that since the promissory note was in English, he could not make out what was written in it. The signature in the promissory note itself was forged by Perumal, he claimed. He also claimed that he signs only in Tamil while the signature in the promissory note was in English.
Justice Pushpa Satyanarayana asked Thyagarajan what was his profession. The petitioner said he was an executive engineer with the Government of Tamil Nadu. The judge also asked him whether he has the copies of the acknowledgements of the monthly Rs 2000 which he claims to have paid the lender for seven years and the answer was negative.
As a final blow, the judge showed Thyagarajan copies of affidavits he had filed in the lower courts. All the documents bore his signature in English. “Now, it is impossible for me to believe that the petitioner, who holds an important position in the Government would keep on paying Rs 2000 per month for seven years without any receipts or acknowledgments,” said the judge who asked Thyagarajan to return the amount with interest to Perumal within two months.
PM Elavarasan of Kottur, a Chennai suburb, approached the Madras High Court with the plea that the sub registrar of Virugambakkam is directed to release the sale deed presented by him in April 2013. It turned out to be that Elavarasan had forged documents and illegally annexed a plot of land belonging to two brothers at Vadapalani. The Sub Registrar refused to register the document and withheld the papers which made Elavarasan file a complaint with the Madras High Court.
After hearing both the parties, Justice S Vaidyanathan said had he got the authority, the judge would have ordered to chop off Elavarasan’s fingers . “Iran has unveiled its latest innovation in criminal punishment-a machine that cuts off fingers of thieves. For having committed forgery of property document in the case on hand, this court is of the view that such a punishment should be awarded to the petitioner,” said the judge.
A chilled Elavarasan got his breath back when the judge regretted that there was no law to that effect in our country. Justice Vaidyanathan , however imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on Elavarasan with instruction to the court registry that the amount should be equally divided between four leading public service institutions.