Nalam Kaakkum Stalin scheme: AIADMK MP C.Ve. Shanmugam files contempt plea against T.N. Health, Public dept. secretaries
The contempt plea is expected to be listed before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan. In an affidavit filed through his counsel K. Gowtham Kumar, the MP stated the Bench had passed a detailed interim order last week making it clear the nomenclature of no government scheme should bear the name of a living personality.
Within hours after the order was released on August 1, 2025, the Public Department Secretary filed a petition seeking a clarification that the interim order would not apply to 'Ungaludan Stalin' and 'Nalam Kaakkum Stalin' schemes. The clarification/modification petition was not listed for hearing on August 1, 2025, and the court had not passed any order either clarifying/modifying its orders.
Yet, the government machinery had gone ahead and launched the 'Nalam Kaakum Stalin' scheme on August 2, 2025, in blatant violation of the interim orders passed by the court, the MP complained. He said, the filing of the modification/clarification petition by itself was sufficient to prove the officials were well aware of the prohibition imposed by the court on naming government schemes after living personalities.
'In effect, the respondents have reduced the modification petition to a mere formality and an eyewash to escape the clutches of contempt and have proceeded to use the name of the scheme (Nalam Kaakkum Stalin) in contravention to the orders passed by the court. The respondents have used the modification petition as a shield against their illegallties. They cannot be allowed to blow hot and cold at the same breath,' the contempt affidavit read.
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