Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: August 4, 2022 at 20:19 IST
The Madras High Court’s order that the CBI probe into allegations of corruption against former Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami in contract awarding in the state highways department was set aside by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The Madras High Court’s order that the CBI look into charges of corruption against former Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Edappadi K. The Supreme Court overturned Palaniswami’s contract awarding decisions at the State Roads Department on Wednesday.
The High Court was urged to make its decision about the complaint against Palaniswami without being affected by earlier observations or orders made in this case by the Bench comprised of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justice Krishna Murari, and Justice Hima Kohli.
The High Court issued the judgement shifting the investigation into his complaint of tender irregularities to CBI for a “fair, reasonable, and transparent probe” in October 2018 after taking note of the argumentof the DMK leader R S Bharathi’s against Palaniswami.
Mr. Palaniswami filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging the High Court ruling that was stayed.
When appearing on behalf of the DMK leader, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said he preferred an impartial investigation over a CBI probe.
The Bench was of the opinion, “Let the high court examine the (inquiry) report. Without going into the details of the matter, we request the high court to look into the reports submitted there and pass an appropriate order after examining the report…We set aside all the observations that will not come in the way of the fresh consideration of the matter,”
Mr. Palaniswami was accused of misusing his position to allocate various road construction projects to companies owned by his relatives and others, according to Mr. Bharathi, who filed the petition in the high court.
Mr. Palaniswami had contended that the order had been wrongly passed by the High Court without giving him a notice or an opportunity to defend.
The DMK leader had sought the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) for directions on how to register a case against the former Chief Minister. Mr. Palaniswami was given a clean chit from the DVAC.