MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered an interim stay on the execution of certain portions of Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission report which indicted and recommended an investigation against former health minister C Vijayabaskar in connection with the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Justice GR Swaminathan passed the interim order on a petition filed by Vijayabaskar seeking to quash relevant portions- especially paragraphs 39.1 to 39.7 and 47.28- of the commission’s report dated August 23, 2022, and the subsequent G.O. issued by the state government on October 17, 2022, in so far as the allegations or actions against him are concerned.
The petitioner was represented by counsels Nithyaesh Natraj, Vaibhav Venkatesh, and Anirudh Sriram. They pointed out that Vijayabaskar had been called by the commission only as a witness and no notice was issued to him before ordering the investigation. The petitioner’s reputation has taken a toll owing to the ‘baseless findings’ made in the commission’s report, they further added.
Hearing the submissions, Justice Swaminathan observed that there is an infraction of Section 8B of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, which says that if any person’s reputation is likely to be prejudicially affected by the inquiry, the commission should give the person a reasonable opportunity of being heard in the inquiry and to produce evidence in his defence.
Further noting that a part of the cause of action arose within the court’s jurisdiction, the judge ordered an interim stay for the execution of the commission’s report and adjourned the case. The inquiry report stated that Vijayabaskar pleaded ignorance to various questions posed by the commission about the late CM’s health and medical treatment.
“It is surprising that being the health minister, he did not take the necessary and proper initiative to take late CM abroad for treatment,” the report stated, adding that he was the main tool used by VK Sasikala and the Apollo doctors to prevent the attempts to take the late CM abroad.
‘No notice issued’
Vijayabaskar’s counsels said the ex-minister was called by the commission only as a witness and no notice was issued to him before ordering investigation. His reputation has taken a toll owing to ‘baseless findings’, they said