Supreme Court seeks report on suo motu powers cited by Madras High Court to restore corruption case against Minister

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a report from the Registrar General of the Madras High Court about how the High Court went about its suo motu proceedings to restore a corruption case against Tamil Nadu Minister KKSSR Ramachandran [Thiru KKSSR Ramachandran vs. State Rep by Additional Superintendent of Police and ors]..A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra asked the High Court Registrar General to file the same by February 5.The report has to specify the jurisdiction of single-judge Justice Anand Venkatesh who had passed a series of suo motu revision orders to restore corruption cases against six sitting and former Tamil Nadu ministers including KKSSR Ramachandran.The top court also asked the High Court's Registrar General to clarify whether the prior approval of the High Court's Chief Justice was obtained before exercising such suo motu jurisdiction..Thank God we have judges like Justice Anand Venkatesh: Supreme Court .The issue arose after the Madras High Court, in August last year, initiated suo motu revision proceedings to question the correctness of special court orders that had discharged two Tamil Nadu ministers in disproportionate assets cases.Noting that both the accused and prosecution played a "perfect game," Justice N Anand Venkatesh issued notice to the accused Ministers - State Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran and the Minister for Human Resource Management Thangam Thenarasu.The two Ministers were discharged from disproportionate asset cases in July 2023 and December 2022 respectively.Ramachandran and his wife subsequently filed an appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge Justice Venkatesh's order. Meanwhile, in September 2023, Justice Venkatesh was transferred from the principal bench at Chennai to the Madurai bench of the High Court..Before the top court, Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, NR Elango, Siddharth Luthra and Ravindra Shrivastava and advocates G Marripan and Vivek Singh appeared for Ramachandran and his wife..The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had initially registered a case against Ramachandran, his wife and a friend of the Minister under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) on December 20, 2011. The DVAC claimed that they were in possession of ₹44.59 lakh disproportionate to their known sources of income during the period between April 1, 2006, and March 31, 2010.The DVAC registered the corruption case against Thennarasu and his wife T Manimegalai on February 14, 2012. A charge sheet was also filed claiming that the couple possessed ₹74.58 lakhs disproportionate to their known sources of income between May 15, 2006, and March 31, 2010.However, in July last year, Sessions Judge V Thilaham accepted a closure report filed by the DVAC and accepted the agency's sudden change of heart, concluding that the Minister’s family had excess savings of only ₹1.49 lakh and not disproportionate assets worth ₹44.59 lakh. On December 12, 2022, Principal Sessions Judge M Christopher accepted another closure report filed by the DVAC and discharged Thennarasu and his wife from the corruption case against them..Thereafter, Justice Venkatesh passed his suo motu revision orders and observed that the approach of the special court was “ex-facie illegal” and that it had no power to discharge the accused without assigning any reason. He added that the special court had failed to give an independent reasoning in the order of discharge and was “literally playing the role of lady justice by blindfolding itself.”The High Court judge, therefore, set aside the discharge of the accused and restored the corruption cases against them. This has now been called into question before the Supreme Court. .[Read order].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.