“Vikram Ram has been making a series of serious allegations against the Foundation in general and Under Secretary Srinivasamurty in particular. The latest I have seen is to the President and the Prime Minister”, wrote Dr. Karan Singh, Chairman of Auroville Foundation to the Secretary of the Foundation on April 29, 2019. Informing that he received “a long explanation from Srinivasamurthy” he added, “This is a serious matter and we cannot be idle spectators”. Dr Singh’s letter constituted an Enquiry Committee in terms of Section 16 of Auroville Foundation Act to look into the “entire matter” with the Secretary Shri. Mohan Chunkath (Former Chief Sec. of Tamil Nadu) as its Convenor and former Secretary Bala Baskar, Members of the Board Smt. Nirima Oza, Shri Anirban Ganguly and Shri Madan Gopal Madabhushi as members. The committee was required to submit its report in two months.
The Committee submitted its report a day before the deadline on 28th June 2019. The report informed that "Dr. Anirban Ganguly expressed his inability to be the member of the committee owing to prior official engagements and therefore the Chairman included Prof. Sachidananda Mohanty (Member of the Governing Board) as a member of the committee in place of Dr. Anirban Ganguly" and also that as “the complainant [Vikram Ram] expressed apprehensions of threat to his life, if he entered Auroville, and therefore the Foundation provided an official vehicle, accordingly the complainant appeared before the committee” on 6th June 2019.
The committee heard Shri Srinivasmurty, Under Secretary, (Accused Officer - AO) on 6th June 2019. It furnished the AO's reply to Vikram Ram and permitted him to seek any clarification from him. Vikram Ram, "after perusal of all the relevant documents and reply furnished by the AO" stated in writing to the committee that, "... he had come to the conclusion that AO was part of the entire system and there was nothing specific against AO except going with the flow". The committee exonerated the AO from all the charges.
As for the "Complaints consisting of serious allegations on Auroville Foundation, Various Trusts, Groups, Individual residents including on foreigners" the committee arrived at the following conclusion: “In the light of the submission made by the complainant and relevant documentary evidence so produced [the committee] is convinced that there is a prima facie case for investigation into the matter” and unanimously and strongly recommended, “that the complaint be investigated by appropriate central agency to be decided by Ministry of HRD, Govt. Of India as early as possible”.
Three weeks later Vikram Ram filed a Writ Petition at the Madras High Court seeking direction to the Chairman and the Secretary of Auroville Foundation to take action on the Enquiry Committee report and provide him a copy of the same. A Division Bench heard the case on 1st August 2019, the day after registration of the case. The court, declining to issue the direction said: “It is expected that on the basis of the enquiry report, appropriate action would be taken and therefore, there is no need to issue any mandamus at this juncture”. As for the copy of the report, at the court’s suggestion, Vikram Ram’s advocate said he would apply for it under the Right to Information Act.
Next month, on 3rd September 2019, (as the Secretary Shri Mohan Chunkath had demitted office on completion of his tenure) Dr. G. Seetharaman, Secretary-in-Charge of Auroville Foundation sent the Enquiry Committee Report to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for “information”.
On 20th January 2020, Vikram Ram sent a representation to the Secretaries of the MHRD and the Prime Minister’s Office requesting immediate action on the Enquiry Committee report and investigation at the earliest. He sent a further representation to the Ministry on 17th February urging that his complaints be investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or other agencies as deemed fit.
Ten days later, during what is observed in Auroville as the birth anniversary week - between 21st February, the Mother’s birth anniversary and 28th February, the anniversary of the founding of Auroville - Vikram Ram filed a Writ Petition under Public Interest Litigations (PIL) at the Madras High Court on 26th February 2020 mentioning as the first respondent the MHRD, the second respondent CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), third respondent ED and fourth respondent the Auroville Foundation.
The petition submitted that he laboured for three years to obtain information on some of the “irregularities and illegalities surrounding Auroville” and had been “urging various authorities to take cognisance of the issue engulfing Auroville Foundation and pressing for action”. He said that his complaint was finally considered by the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation and an Enquiry Committee was constituted. “Nonetheless, even 8 months after the report has surfaced no action has been taken to investigate into the wrong doings at the Auroville Foundation.” He prayed the court to issue a Writ Mandamus to the MHRD ministry to consider his representation to it further direct the ED to conduct a detailed investigation.
The petition also mentioned that "The master plan for the township, which the Residents Assembly is to formulate and enforce, has seen no activity on the field and remains only a moot point". Stating that he was “performing public activities living out of his own funds” and had been doing such social activities in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and other parts of India, particularly in Mumbai, he said, “I will undertake to pay the cost if any ordered in the present litigation. No similar writ petition is pending in similar issue. I am willing to pay fine if imposed and I am aware of the PIL guidelines stipulated by this Hon’ble Court”.
A Division Bench of the Madras High Court heard the case two weeks later, on 9th March 2020, and notices were issued to the respondents. However, there was no further hearing of the case for 2 years and 5 months until August 2022. That was the year when the NGT ordered on 28th April 2022 a stay of Auroville’s development except for the unfinished part of the Crown Way, a ring road going through the middle of the planned city area of Auroville and a single judge order of the Madras High Court quashed on 12th August 2022 an order from the Secretary’s office prohibiting meetings by the Residents Assembly of Auroville till the Register of Residents is updated by it. The judge regarded the Governing Board, International Advisory Council and the Residents Assembly as equal statutory authorities under the Auroville Foundation Act and ordered that they shall not take 'any policy decision which alters the existing structure and working of the Auroville Foundation" until the updating of the Register of Residents is completed by the Secretary’s Office. (Later, both the judgments were substantially but partly stayed on appeal by the Auroville Foundation.) Earlier in March the Ministry of Education (MoE) communicated to Auroville Foundation that a special audit would be done by Principal Chief Controller of Accounts (Pr CCA) of the ministry to look into the complaints from Mr Vikram Ramakrishnan. In July the Pr CCA sent to the Auroville Foundation the “Internal Audit Report of Auroville Foundation for the period from April 2016 to March 2021”.
The MHRD was renamed the Ministry of Education (MoE) in July 2020. Dr. Karan Singh, Chairman of the Governing Board of Auroville Foundation demitted his office on completion of his tenure in November 2020 and so also other members of the Board. Shri Darmendra Pradhan was appointed the Minister of Education and Dr Jayanti S Ravi the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, in July 2021. Shri. R.N. Ravi, Governor of Tamil Nadu was appointed Chairman along with new members of the Board, in October 2021.
The hearing on Vikram Ram’s Public Interest Litigation, never listed after the first hearing in March 2020 when notices were issued, resumed next year on 16th August 2022. A communication from the Ministry of Education (MoE) to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on 17th August 2022 said, “Auroville Foundation has been asked to comply with the recommendations of the audit report”. It also referred to a letter enclosing the Enquiry Committee report from the Secretary of Auroville Foundation Dr Jayanti S. Ravi dated 4th March 2022 to MHA. The ministry acknowledged the report was received by itself earlier (Dr. Seetharaman, Secretary in Charge of Auroville Foundation had sent it to the MHRD, for information, in 2019).
On 20th July 2022, the Secretary, Auroville Foundation, sent a letter to the Ministry of Education and the ministry then sent it to the Internal Security I Division of MHA requesting them to take action on issues such as Economic offences, fraudulent transactions, violations of PMLA & FEMA, Benami properties, Money laundering, Round tripping of black money, Issues on threat to national security, cybercrime and drug abuse etc.
After three adjournments in August 2022, the next hearing of Vikram Ram's PIL was 8 months later on 24th April 2023. (Coincidentally, it is a day observed annually as “The Mother's Final Arrival in Pondicherry”.)
(Coming next: Salient points in the Pr CCA audit report which the Ministry of Education has asked the Foundation to comply with, and the current status of the PIL.)
Sources:
1. Documents related to the litigation requested from and generously provided by Vikram Ramakrishnan
2. Website of Madras High Court