Supreme Court stays Madras High Court order restoring corruption cases against TN Ministers

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Madras High Court judgment restoring corruption cases against Tamil Nadu Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran and Human Resource Management Minister Thangam Thenarasu [Thangam Thennarasu v State of Tamil Nadu and ors]..A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra issued notice to the State and other respondents on plea filed by the ministers."It is argued by accused that the special judge has to decide whether there is prima facie case in new supplementary report, but High Court judge already said case to be proceeded," the Court noted in its order. Tamil Nadu Advocate General PS Raman appeared for the State and submitted that the State is also planning to file an appeal challenging the High Court judgment. The Court then asked the respondents to file their responses within four weeks."Issue notice, returnable in four weeks. Serve on standing counsel. In the meantime, operation of Impugned judgment is stayed," the Court ordered..The Madras High Court had on August 7 set aside two special court orders that discharged Ramachandran, Thenarasu and their wives in corruption cases.This led to the instant appeals before the apex court. The High Court's single-judge Justice Anand Venkatesh restored the disproportionate assets cases and asked the trial court to frame charges against the accused.On August 23 last year, Justice Venkatesh had initiated suo motu criminal revision proceedings in this regard, after noting that both the accused and prosecution played a "perfect game"..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 (PCA) in 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.In July this 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 ₹1.49 lakh and not disproportionate assets worth ₹44.59 lakh..Likewise, the DVAC had registered the case against Thennarasu and his wife T Manimegalai on February 14, 2012. A charge sheet was filed claiming that the couple possessed ₹74.58 lakh disproportionate to their known sources of income between May 15, 2006, and March 31, 2010.On December 12, 2022, Principal Sessions Judge M Christopher accepted the closure report filed by the DVAC and discharged Thennarasu and his wife from the case.Subsequently, the High Court initiated criminal revision proceedings suo motu and overturned the discharge order..Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Thangam Thennarasu.Senior Advocate AM Singhvi represented Thennarasu's wife.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for KKSSR Ramachandran while Senior Advocate S Muralidhar represented Ramachandran's wife. Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra and Vikram Chaudhary also appeared for the accused.Advocate General PS Raman appeared for State of Tamil Nadu.