Aastha Thakur
Published on: 21 September 2022 at 22:27 IST
On Tuesday, the Madras High Court ordered the Registry to present the former Tamil Nadu minister SP Velumani’s quashing petitions before a division bench that hears issues involving MPs and MLAs. The temporary stay was prolonged by the bench of Justice Sunder Mohan and Acting Chief Justice M. Duraiswamy till the next hearing date before the relevant bench.
The minister had petitioned the High Court in an effort to have the two FIRs against him that were based on two reports provided by the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption (DVAC) dismissed. The minister claimed that because the DVAC had already cleared him, the further FIRs were invalid.
The state had previously argued that the case should be considered by a special bench established to hear cases involving MPs and MLAs. This argument was, however, overruled by the first bench, which noted that there was no bar to the court hearing the matter because additional petitions filed by Arappor Iyakkam (an NGO) were tagged with the cases and the bench had prima facie jurisdiction.
When the case was discussed today, AG Shunmugasundaram and State Public Prosecutor Hassan Mohammed Jinnah argued that the MP/MLA offences division bench should hear the case. The NGO Arappo Iyakkam’s attorney, V Suresh, backed this submission as well.
The senior counsel appointed strongly opposed the submission stating that the matter should be heard by the first or the second bench.