Judge who acquitted TN minister writes to Madras High Court, says adverse comments by HC against her must be deleted

Retired Principal District Judge of Vellore, N Vasanthaleela, who had acquitted Tamil Nadu minister K Ponmudi in a disproportionate assets case in June this year has written to the Court’s Registrar General (RG) to delete the adverse comments made by the High Court against her for her acquittal order..In her letter, Vasanthaleela, who retired on June 30 this year just two days after acquitting Ponmudi and his wife from the case, has denied any wrong doing on her part.Vasanthaleela said that her 27-year-long judicial career was blemished and her reputation was robbed by the High Court by a single stroke of a pen.She further said that Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who initiated the suo motu criminal revision proceedings against Ponmudi and his co-accused in the case, had failed to “carefully peruse” the lower court’s records and had made adverse remarks against her without any basis..“I submit that the above remarks are a set of unwarranted derogatory and disparaging remarks made against me by the Hon’ble Single Judge. I submit that as a judicial officer having an experience of more than 27 years including 10 years as District Judge, no implication of “the celestial stars of the accused appeared to be lining up perfectly” are considered in any of my judgement,” Vasanthaleela’s letter said..In his order in the suo motu revision passed on August 10 this year, Justice Venkatesh, who at the time held the portfolio for matters pertaining to MPs and MLAs, had questioned the alacrity shown by Vasanthaleela in completing the hearing in the 20-year-old case pertaining to Ponmudi and his co-accused and in acquitting all of them.."By 06.06.2023, a case which had thus far been lingering on for years started to move with great alacrity. Perhaps, the accused drew inspiration from Paulo Coelho who said that “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. By the first week of June 2023, the celestial stars of the accused appeared to be lining up perfectly, with the blessings of judicial personages, including the Principal District Judge, Vellore who was set to demit office on 30.06.2023. DW-1 was quickly examined on the side of the defense on 06.06.2023. On 23.06.2023, written submissions were made on the side of the accused, and on 28.06.2023, ie., within 4 days, the Principal District, Vellore marshalled the evidence of 172 prosecution witnesses and 381 documents and managed (or rather stage-managed) to deliver a 226-page testament/judgment acquitting all the accused," Justice Venkatesh had said in his order..The High Court judge had also questioned the administrative note issued by two of the Madras High Court administrative judges at the time, Justices T Raja and V Bhavani Subborayan transferring the case against the Ponmudi couple from the district court Villupuram to the principal district judge at Vellore..In her letter to the RG, Vasanthaleela has said that she had no role in such transfer of the case. She further said that in disposing of the case in a timely manner, she had merely been following the Court’s order directing that the case be decided expeditiously..“When the case was transferred from the file of Principal District Judge, Villupuram to the file of Principal District Judge, Vellore, already it was a 20 years old case and this court was directed to dispose this case “EXPETIDIOUSLY”. Accordingly in compliance of the Hon’ble High Court’s direction and also in view of the directions issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in “Ashwin kumar Upadhayay vs UOI IN WP(CIVIL)699/2016” the case was disposed of meritoriously without any favour or fear, by posting and hearing the case periodically from the date of taken on file till the date of disposal, on the basis of materials available on record and as the charge could not be held to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, appropriate order has been passed in my Judgment. However in the event of this Hon’ble Court coming to a conclusion that the order is erroneous, the same may be reversed on the basis of materials available. I cannot have any “say” in that aspect nor I justify my acquittal order. Hence I reiterate that the case was viewed as Direction case only and accordingly disposed off with the available material on record and nothing else as observed,” Vasanthaleela said..The retired judge also said that 90 percent of the case had already been dealt with by the Villipuram court before it was transferred to Vellore..Referring to Justice Venkatesh’s observation that she had managed to navigate through 172 prosecution witnesses and 381 documents and give a 226-page-long judgement within days, Vasanthaleela said she had had a chance to go through the case papers in detail during the summer vacation in May this year, and was therefore, able to deliver her judgement within 10 days..Vasanthaleela also said that if her judgement acquitting Ponmudi and the others was found to be faulty, the legal provisions of appeals and revisions could have be invoked and there was no reason for the High Court to have made adverse remarks against her..“To my personal feeling in publication of para 12 of the impugned order in all modern media including newspapers, it is nothing but robbing of my reputation and also my earnest service in the judiciary, by single stroke of pen vide order dated 10/08/2023 in Suo moto Crl.R.C.No.1419 of 2023 passed by the Hon’ble Single Judge, that too within less than 45 days of my retirement,” the letter said.