Madras High Court Chief Justice re-assigns all six suo motu revision cases against DMK ministers to Justice Anand Venkatesh

Madras High Court Chief Justice (CJ) SV Gangapurwala has re-assigned all six suo motu criminal revision petitions initiated against the acquittal or discharge of sitting Tamil Nadu ministers to Justice N Anand Venkatesh..In August last year, Justice Venkatesh, who was then the portfolio judge for special courts dealing with cases of MPs and MLAs, had decided to initiate suo motu revision against the six orders passed by special courts across Tamil Nadu discharging State ministers in cases of disproportionate assets. The judge had initiated such revision proceedings after going through the special courts' orders of acquittal or discharge and finding that due process had not been followed in the passing of such orders..Subsequently, on October 3 that year, Justice Venkatesh was transferred to the Madurai bench in what the Registry said was a routine procedure. Justice G Jayachandran took over the hearing of the suo motu revision cases.Justice Venkatesh returned to the principal bench at Chennai in January this year, and was allotted the same roster by Chief Justice Gangapurwala..Following his return to the principal bench, Justice Venkatesh had scheduled further hearing in these suo motu matters against Tamil Nadu Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, former TN Social Welfare Minister B Valarmathi, and State Rural Development Minister I Periyasamy on different dates through the month of February 2024..Meanwhile, Ramachandran approached the Supreme Court challenging the suo motu proceedings. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court said in its order that Justice Venkatesh should ideally have sought approval of CJ Gangapurwala before deciding to hear the suo motu matters himself. The Supreme Court, therefore, directed CJ Gangapurwala to take a fresh call on whether to hear the suo motu matters himself or to assign it to some other bench..As per the original schedule, Justice Venkatesh was to hear the matters of KKSSR, Thennarasu, and Panneerselvam on Thursday.Earlier this morning, when Senior Advocate NR Elango mentioned KKSSR’s matter before Justice Venkatesh, the judge had adjourned the hearing saying that the files of all suo motu revision matters were pending before CJ Gangapurwala.In the afternoon, however, when the remaining suo motu matters were called out, Justice Venkatesh said in open court that all the CJ Gangapurwala had assigned all the six matters to him.“What would have normally come to me as per portfolio has now been specially assigned to me,” Justice Venkatesh said in open court..Justice Venkatesh said he will now hear these matters between February 27 and March 5.