Even as the Tamil Nadu government moved a memo in the Madras HC seeking to withdraw a review application that it had filed against the court’s order to register an FIR into the alleged cash for jobs scam, former minister for municipal administration and water supplies, KN Nehru, said the State cannot renege on its stand owing to a change of regime.
The submission was made by senior counsel Siddharth Luthra, representing Nehru.
It came when the contempt petition filed by AIADMK MP IS Inbadurai and the review petition filed by Nehru against the court’s Feb. 20, 202,6 order to register FIR forthwith based on information shared by the Enforcement Directorate on October 27, 2025, came up for hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan on Tuesday.
Advocate General Vijay Narayan, representing the state, told the bench the government is filing a memo for withdrawing the review petition filed against the Feb. 20 order, which was passed on a writ petition filed by Inbadurai.
“They cannot be allowed to renege on the stand taken in the writ petition. They can’t say that the administration changes when the wind changes,” he said, adding that the objections raised by the state in the writ petition are something that they can’t renege on.
Counsels appearing for other review petitioners, including Nehru’s brothers, KN Manivannan and N Ravichandran, submitted that the predicate offence and the Enforcement Case Information Report registered by the Enforcement were quashed by the concerned courts.
The materials based on which the ED sought the police to register an FIR were not even part of the predicate offence. The Central agency had said these were “accidental materials” and sent a communication to the DGP to register FIR while keeping silent on these materials, even on the petitions seeking quashing of ECIR, a counsel submitted.
Stating that it will decide on whether the review applications are maintainable for the ground that the review applicants should have been given an opportunity of hearing before passing the orders in the writ petition, the bench adjourned the hearing to July 10, 2026, for final arguments.
It also said the contempt of court petition has become infructuous with the registration of the FIR.
On Feb. 20, 2026, the Court ordered the DVAC to register an FIR forthwith based on ED’s communication on the petition filed by AIADMK MP IS Inbadurai, who later filed a contempt of court petition against DVAC for not complying with this order.
In the meantime, the state government and Nehru filed review petitions. Advocate General Vijay Narayan moved the memo to withdraw the review petition after the change of guard in the government.