Supreme Court Stays HC Order Which Set Aside Discharge Of TN Ministers KKSSR Ramachandran & Thangam Thenarasu In DA Case

The Supreme Court on Friday (September 6) stayed the order of the Madras High Court which set aside the discharge of Tamil Nadu Ministers KKSSR Ramachandran,Thangam Thenarasu and their spouses in disproportionate assets cases.

A bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra passed the interim order while issuing notice on their special leave petitions.

Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Thenarasu and his wife Manimegalai and Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for KKSSR Ramachandran. Senior Advocate Dr.S Muralidhar appeared for R Adhilakshmi, the wife of Ramachandran. They took objection to the procedure adopted by the High Court in setting aside the discharge in a suo motu criminal revision. They questioned how the High Court, while exercising criminal revision, could have held that the closure reports filed by the DVAC were not acceptable.  This amounted to the High Court usurping the power of the Trial Judge. The High Court's judgment was contended to be contrary to the procedure contemplated by the Supreme Court in the Vinay Tyagi case.

It was further contended that the Chief Justice, as the master of roster, while assigning the suo motu criminal cases pertaining to MP/MLAs, should have assigned the matter to a division bench. However, the matter was assigned to a single bench. This is contrary to the rules of the High Court.

Advocate General of Tamil Nadu PS Raman submitted that the State itself is planning to file a special leave petition against the order as it interfered with the findings of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption(DVAC).

The High Court, while setting aside the closure reports, had restored the cases to the Special MP/MLA court and directed the petitioners to appear for trial on September 9, 2024. The High Court also ordered that the trial should be conducted on a day-to-day basis for early completion.

Case : T. THENNARASU (A) THANGAM THENNARASU v THE STATE OF TAMIL NADU AND ORS | SLP(Crl) No. 11664/2024 and connected cases.