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Supreme Court Stays Madras HC Order on TN Ministers’ Corruption Cases
The bench on Friday halted a judgement of the Madras High Court to reopen the corruption charges against the Tamil Nadu Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran and the Human Resource Management Minister Thangam Thenarasu [Thangam Thennarasu v State of Tamil Nadu and ors].
It is a Bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra in response to the plea filed by ministers who have served in the State that it has said issuing notices to the State and other respondents.
This as stated by the accused where he urged that the special judge has to analyse if there is a prima facie case in new supplementary report however a High Court judge already said the case to be proceeded, indicated the Court of Appeal.
Advocate General of the State of Tamil Nadu Mr. PS Raman joined the proceedings and pointed out the fact that the Decree was passed during pendency of the Special Appeal and thus the State also intends to file an appeal against the Judgment of the High Court.
The Court then requested the respondents to do so within a period of four weeks.
“Issue notice, returnable in four weeks. Serve on standing counsel. In the meantime, operation of Impugned judgment is stayed” the court said.
Now deliberation of the cases will be done jointly by Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra
I.M. Justice Hrishikesh Roy, and the Hon’ble Mr. Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra
The Madras High Court had on August 7 quashed two special court orders which directed acquittal of Ramachandran, Thenarasu and their wives in corruption cases.
This led to the instant appeals before the apex court Above are the key points of the case People.
In the ‘ disproportionate assets’ cases, Single bench Justice of the High Court Anand Venkatesh of Madurai Bench, reinstated the disproportionate assets cases and directed the trial court to file charges against the accused.
On August 23 last year, the Judge for the case, Justice Venkatesh had commenced this criminal revision proceeding suo motu after noticing that both the accused and the prosecution team performed what could be a “perfect game”.
Ramachandran and his wife Revathy Ramachandran and a friend of the Minister were first booked by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) under the PCA on December 20, 2011. According to the DVAC, they had seized ₹44, from the accused and this is what actually prompted them into action. fourty-five to fifty nine lakh are disproportionate to their known sources of income during the period between 1st April, 2006 to 31st March, 2010.
In this regard, DVAC submitted a closure report before Sessions Judge V Thilaham on July this year and the last noted the agency’s volte-face reasoning that the Minister’s family had excess savings of ₹1. criminal assets worth ₹ 49 lakh & not disproportionate assets worth ₹44. 59 lakh.
Similarly, the DVAC had lodged the case against Thennarasu and wife T Manimegalai on February 14, 2012. A charge sheet was filed stating that the couple had ₹ 74 charges against them. 58 lakh which are disproportionate to their known sources of income between may 15, 2006 to march 31, 2010.
On the 12 th of December 2022, Principal Sessions Judge M Christopher agreed to the closure report which had been presented by the DVAC and released Thennarasu and his wife from the case.
After that, the High Court taken criminal revision suo motu and later on set aside the discharge order.
Thangam Thennarasu was represented by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi.
Thennarasu was represented by Senior Advocate AM Singhvi while the wife of Thennarasu was represented.
Kapil Sibal also appeared for the applicant, KKSSR Ramachandran while S Muralidhar appeared for the applicant’s wife.
Sidharth Luthra,the senior advocate and Vikram Chaudhary also appeared for the accused.
Dr.Anishi Kumar was appeared for the State of Tamil Nadu.
