On Tuesday, November 10, the Madras High Court directed the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption to register an FIR regarding an alleged procurement scam involving artificial intelligence-generated books for public libraries, as Live Law reported.
The bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice MD Sumathi ordered authorities to freeze the bank accounts of the publishers involved. The petition alleged that officials failed to comply with established procurement guidelines, causing financial loss to the state.
“The matter was not a routine administrative lapse or a simple monetary irregularity but a severe and calculated attempt to corrupt and destroy the educational system, literary integrity and civilisation history of the State of Tamil Nadu,” said K. P. S. Palanivel Rajan, Senior Counsel for the petitioner, as Live Law reported.
The controversy centers on book titles purchased for institutions such as the Periyar Arivulagam in Coimbatore and the Kalaingar Centenary Library in Madurai, where books featured fictitious authors and fabricated information. Among the flagged volumes were titles falsely attributed to economist Jean Dreze and works containing non-existent historical details.
Publishing house founder Badri Seshadri told the court during a virtual hearing that the amounts paid to certain publishers were unusually high. He said that a single publisher received 17 lakh rupees, which he described as obscenely high for single-source procurement, according to Bar and Bench.
“Simply blaming the committee – that the committee could have approved it – it just doesn’t work at all for me,” Badri Seshadri told Bar and Bench.
BREAKING: Madras High Court orders immediate registration of FIR in alleged Tamil Nadu public library books procurement scam. Court directs freezing of bank accounts of Agal Vilakku Publication, its proprietor Mohan and others involved. pic.twitter.com/pvVkt1DtW9
The court directed the Director of Public Libraries to submit an affidavit detailing procurement costs and publisher lists by Monday. The case is scheduled for further hearings on November 16, Monday, as Bar and Bench noted.
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