The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court to take a fresh call on which judge(s) should hear suo motu proceedings initiated last year to revive corruption cases against several Tamil Nadu politicians, including sitting Ministers [Thiru KKSSR Ramachandran vs. State Rep by Additional Superintendent of Police and ors].
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra passed the order while dealing with applications filed by two Ministers affected by such suo motu orders.
"We deem it appropriate to say that the suo motu matters should be considered by the Hon'ble Chief Justice; he may either take the matter himself or to another judge as he may consider appropriate. Thereafter, the matter will proceed on merits. Ordered accordingly. The above order should not be construed as making comments on the concerned learned judges hearing the suo motu matters. The applications are disposed of," the top court directed.
Interestingly, as today's hearing drew to a close, Justice Mishra briefly commented on how Ministers in Tamil Nadu were being acquitted in many cases against them.
"The sessions' judges in Tamil Nadu are acquitting all Ministers!" the judge remarked.
The matter before the top court concerned corruption cases against various Tamil Nadu Ministers that were earlier closed, but later revived by Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court through suo motu orders passed last year.
In these suo motu revision proceedings, Justice Venkatesh questioned the correctness of special court orders discharging Tamil Nadu ministers in disproportionate assets cases.
In one such High Court order passed in August last year, Justice Venkatesh remarked that both the accused and prosecution had played a "perfect game."
It, therefore, issued notice to two the accused Ministers - State Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran and the Minister for Human Resource Management Thangam Thenarasu.
Thank God we have judges like Justice Anand Venkatesh: Supreme Court
Both Ministers and their wives had been accused by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) of holding assets disproportionate to their known source of income between 2006 and 2010.
The two Ministers, Ramachandran and Thenarasu, were discharged from these disproportionate asset cases in July 2023 and December 2022 respectively.
Both Ministers challenged the High Court's suo motu decision to revive these cases by filing pleas before the Supreme Court.
In response, the top court sought a report from the Registrar General of the Madras High Court about how the High Court went about issuing the suo motu orders to restore corruption cases against KKSSR Ramachandran, Thangam Thennarasu and other Ministers.
The report was to specify the jurisdiction of Justice Anand Venkatesh who had passed the suo motu revision orders. Further, the report was to clarify whether the prior approval of the High Court's Chief Justice was obtained before exercising such suo motu jurisdiction.
The report so filed was discussed in today's hearing.
The counsel for the Ministers argued that the suo motu orders could cause havoc. The top court was also told that, as per the report, no prior approval of the Chief Justice was obtained before the suo motu orders were passed.
The counsel representing the High Court, however, stated that approval was obtained as per the rules applicable.
Justice Roy hinted today that ideally, Justice Venkatesh ought to have placed the matter before the Chief Justice first.
"The first time he (Chief Justice) saw it (file of the first suo motu order) was after (suo motu jurisdiction was exercised). He (Justice Anand Venkatesh) had said please number it (to Registry), not please number it after approval from the Chief Justice. He (Justice Anand) should not have done it, but we do not want to make a comment there," Justice Roy said.
The Supreme Court proceeded to dispose of the matter by asking the Chief Justice to decide afresh on which should hear the suo motu cases, moving forward.
Meanwhile, the suo motu cases were listed before Justice Venkatesh today but adjourned to February 7 (Wednesday) in view of today's developments before the Supreme Court.
Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, NR Elango, Siddharth Luthra, M Sathyanarayanan and Ravindra Shrivastava with advocates G Marripan and Vivek Singh appeared for the Tamil Nadu Ministers, including Ramachandran and his wife, before the Supreme Court.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for the Madras High Court.
TAGS: Supreme Court Madras High Court Suo motu proceedings Corruption cases. Tamil Nadu politician
