CHENNAI: When did the Justice R Regupathi Commission, constituted by AIADMK government in 2011 to probe the alleged irregularities in the construction of the new State Secretariat complex, hand over all its files and documents to the State government?
This question was raised by Justice R Mahadevan on Wednesday when a writ petition from DMK president M K Stalin challenging the orders of the government, which directed the secretary of the Commission to hand over all the files, documents and evidence collected by the Commission, to Directorate of Vigilance And Anti-Corruption (DVAC), came up on Wednesday.
The judge asked Advocate-General (AG) Vijay Narayan to collect the details and inform the court on October 12.
When the matter came up, petitioner’s senior counsel P Wilson said that while dealing with the petitions pertaining to the commission of inquiry, Justice S M Subramaniam had directed the commission to hand over the records to the State government and on receipt of the same, the government should scrutinise it and if a prima facie case was found then only a criminal prosecution should be initiated.
However, the State government, unmindful of this judgment, had passed a GO on September 24 and straight away directed the Commission to hand over the records to DVAC, counsel contended. The AG submitted that the State was acting on the directives of Justice Subramaniam.
The State had not ordered for registration of an FIR and go ahead with investigation. The State had merely asked DVAC to form an opinion, he said.