CHENNAI: The First Bench of the Madras High Court, comprising Acting Chief Justice M Duraiswamy and Justice Sunder Mohan, on Tuesday transferred two quash petitions of former minister for municipal administration and AIADMK leader SP Velumani to a division bench dealing with criminal cases against MP/MLAs.
The DVAC registered two FIRs based on complaints from Arappor Iyakkam and DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi regarding alleged irregularities in awarding tenders in Chennai and Coimbatore municipal corporations and amassing of disproportionate assets against Velumani. Seeking to quash the FIRs, he filed the petitions in the high court.
When the matter came up before the first bench, Advocate General (AG) R Shunmugasundaram and State Public Prosecutor (SPP) Hasan Mohammed Jinnah submitted that it be taken up for hearing. The bench, however, cited lack of time since the ACJ is retiring on Wednesday. Subsequently, the SPP pressed for transferring the petitions to the division bench headed by Justice PN Prakash, which is dealing with criminal cases against MP/MLAs.
However, senior counsel SV Raju, appearing for Velumani, opposed transferring the petitions to the bench headed by Justice PN Prakash and requested that they be heard by the second division bench.
Refusing to agree with him, the first bench ordered that since the matter is pertaining to a sitting MLA, it be posted before the bench presided over by Justice Prakash, who has the roster to hear criminal cases involving sitting or former MPs and MLAs. However, it extended the interim stay on DVAC against proceeding till the matter is listed before the concerned division bench.
It may be noted that the first bench headed by Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari (since retired) had recently disapproved of the demand of the State to move the quash petitions to the division bench having the roster, saying that since a PIL was involved, the first bench would continue to hear the matters.