Madras High Court CJ Re-Assigns Suo Motu Revisions Against Acquittal/Discharge Of Ministers To Justice Anand Venkatesh

In August last year, Justice Anand Venkatesh had taken suo motu revision of the order of a trial court acquitting K Ponmudi and his wife in a disproportionate assets case. This was followed with the judge taking up suo motu revisions against the acquittal/discharge of Tamil Nadu Revenue Minister KKSSR Ramachandran, Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu, Former Chief Minister O Paneerselvam, former Backward Class and Minority Welfare Minister B Valarmathi and present Rural Development Minister of Tamil Nadu I. Periyasamy.

When KKSSR Ramachandran challenged the suo motu cognizance taken by Justice Venkatesh, the Apex Court, after perusing the report submitted by the Registrar General of Madras High Court, noted that the prior approval of the Chief Justice was not sought before taking up the matters and the same was done after the Single Judge had passed orders taking cognizance.

Noting that due weightage must be given to protect the purity of the judicial process, the Apex Court had directed the Chief Justice to take a call on the matter and decide which court would hear the matters. The CJ has now specially ordered the cases to be heard by Justice Venkatesh.

“What would have normally come to me as per portfolio has now been specially assigned to me,” Justice Venkatesh said in open court.

It should also be noted that the Chief Justice of India had previously refused to interfere with Justice Venkatesh's suo motu order re-opening the acquittal of K Ponmudy and his wife. The CJI had also lauded Justice Venkatesh for exercising his suo motu revision powers to raise questions on the transfer of Ponmudy's case from one District Judge to another by an order of the High Court on the administrative side, as well as his acquittal.

The court has now decided to hear the petitions against KKSSR Ramachandran, Thangam Thenarasu, O Paneerselvam, and B Valarmathi from February 27^th. The hearing of petitions against Periyasamy and Ponmudi will take place as per the initial schedule.

When fixing the dates for the final hearing of the suo motu revisions, Justice Venkatesh had previously made it clear that the court would not be looking into the merits of the order of discharge/acquittal of the ministers but would be focusing on the legality of filing the final closure reports under Section 173 (8) CrPC and the legality of the trial court accepting the report and acting upon it as if it was superior to a report under Section 173(2) CrPC.

The court had also made it clear that it would examine whether the trial court had committed a jurisdictional error while discharging the accused ministers under Section 239 of CrPC.