The Supreme Court on Friday set aside an order of the Madras High Court which directed the trial court to summon the Union Telecom Secretary as a court witness in a case against DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran relating to the alleged setting up of “illegal” telephone exchanges.
A bench comprising Justices KV Viswanathan and Arun Palli was hearing a plea filed by the CBI challenging the March 25 order of the high court.
"Now that we are inclined to restore the order of the trial court, we permit the respondent (Maran) to summon the secretary telecom as a defence witness as indicated in our August 10 order. We set aside the high court's order and restore the trial court's order. We permit the respondent to have the option to summon the secretary, telecom, as a defence witness, if he so desires," the bench said.
During the hearing, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Maran, objected to the telecom secretary being summoned as a defence witness and said it would be appropriate if he summoned as court witness.
On August 10, the apex court had asked advocates appearing for Maran as to why the secretary of telecom cannot be summoned as a defence witness.
It had also asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI, whether he would have any objection if the secretary, telecom, is summoned as a defence witness.
Raju had told the court that he would not object to such a direction.
On March 25, the high court had allowed a plea by Maran to summon the Union Telecommunication Secretary to depose as a court witness before the trial court in Chennai in the case.
The high court had said that Secretary's evidence was relevant to determining whether Maran, who was Minister of Communications and Information Technology between 2004 and 2007, was entitled to service-category telecom connections during the relevant period.
The trial court by its order dated October 10, 2025, had rejected Maran's prayer to summon the telecom secretary as the court witness.
The charges date back to the time when Maran was the Union minister for telecommunications and information technology in the UPA-1 government.
The CBI has alleged that he misused his official position and got private telephone exchanges installed at his various residences here which were used for business transactions of the Sun Network.