Supreme Court rejects plea for CBI probe into Vijay-led TVK's trust vote win

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged corruption in the Tamil Nadu Assembly trust vote held on May 13 in which Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), led by current Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, emerged victorious. .A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice V Mohana said that the plea was filed without any reliable material."Dismissed. Plea is based on vague, wild and casual allegations without any reliable material on record. We see no ground to interfere," the Bench said..The petition filed by Madurai resident KK Ramesh alleged that TVK emerged as the single largest party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections but did not have the sufficient numbers on its own in the Assembly to form a stable government.Tamil Nadu has 234 Assembly seats and any party or alliance requires the support of at least 118 MLAs to form the government. Vijay secured the support of 144 MLAs and won the trust vote on May 13.As per the plea, TVK had only 108 seats and was short of the majority mark before securing support from other parties and factions. TVK received support from Congress, CPI, CPI(M), VCK, IUML, a faction of rebel AIADMK legislators and the lone AMMK MLA. The petitioner alleged that MLAs from other parties were involved in horse-trading and that “huge amounts of money” were allegedly handed over to certain MLAs by TVK..Advocate CR Jaya Sukin, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the political leaders were switching sides either under pressure or due to monetary consideration."In this country, party leaders are either indulging in corruption by giving bribes, or threatening that family members will be hurt if they don't join the party," Sukin said.CJI Kant asked which State the petitioner was referring to."Which ruling party? In your State, parties keep changing," CJI Kant said.In response, Sukin said it was happening across different States."One state in East India and one in Middle India, party leaders are joining other parties...Speaker must be investigate...Speakers call media...they take it and accept the letter and within minutes they join another party. This is destroying democracy," he said.However, the Court was not convinced and dismissed the plea..Senior Advocates Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Prashanto Sen (AAG) along with Advocates Rupali Samuel, Yash S Vijay, Dixita Gohil, Pranjal Agarwal, T Mahendhran and L Nidhiram Sharma represented the State of Tamil Nadu.