NEW DELHI: As a setback to current Tamil Nadu electricity Minister Senthil Balaji, Supreme Court on Thursday restored a criminal complaint against the minister and persons who were accused of taking bribes from job aspirants on the false promise of appointment to the Metro Transport Corporation (MTC) in various posts.
A bench headed by Justices S Abdul Nazeer in their order said, "In light of the same, Madras HC’s impugned order is unsustainable. The criminal complaint is restored. At present we are not passing any order on the prayer by the intervenor on the formation of SIT, state may do the needful itself."
On Friday, SC had reserved orders in the pleas challenging Madras HC’s order of quashing criminal proceedings against four persons including the minister. The order was reserved by the bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer and V Ramasubramanian.
Madras HC had quashed the proceedings on being informed that the complainant and thirteen alleged victims of the recruitment scam had arrived at a settlement and have been repaid the money owed.
Proceeding to quash the case, Justice N Nirmal Kumar in the order had said, “The case is still at the stage of trial. By passage of time, the parties have decided to bury their hatchet and compromised the dispute amicably among themselves. This Court enquired both the parties and is satisfied that the parties have come to an amicable settlement between themselves. In view of the above, no useful purpose would be achieved by keeping the above case pending ... Under such circumstances, no useful purpose will be served in this case, even though the offences involved are not compoundable in nature."