CHENNAI: Rural Development Minister I Periyasamy on Thursday told the Madras High Court the sanction to prosecute him in a corruption was not taken from the appropriate authority and there is no illegality in the trial court’s order to discharge him from the case.
The submission was made by senior counsel NR Elango before Justice G Jayachandran when the suo motu revision case initiated by the high court, against the order of the trial court discharging him from the corruption case relating to allotment of a government housing plot for a personal security officer of DMK leader M Karunanidhi, came up for hearing.
“During the check period 2006-11, he was a minister. The authority to sanction prosecution must be the governor who has got the powers to remove a minister from the post. But the sanction was taken from the Speaker during 2013-14 when he was an MLA,” he told the court.
Elaborating on the issue, he said to prosecute an MLA , the sanction can be taken from the Speaker of the Assembly since he holds the powers to remove a member of the Assembly. If the person, against whom sanction is sought for prosecution, is a minister during the check period, on which, the case is registered, naturally the sanction should be taken from the governor even if he is not holding the same position at the time when the sanction is sought, Elango said.