CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday questioned a petitioner seeking to revive the alleged 2001 flyover scam case whether the decision of the assembly speaker to withdraw the sanction granted for prosecuting the current CM MK Stalin be challenged in the court, that too, after a delay of about 15-20 years.
The first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice J Sathya Narayana Prasad raised the query when the PIL plea filed by a Coimbatore-based activist, Manickam Athappa Goundar, challenging the withdrawal of sanction for prosecution against Stalin and his cabinet colleague K Ponmudy, came up for hearing.
The petition was taken up after the petitioner deposited Rs 1 lakh in the account of the court’s registry as directed by the bench to test the bonafide intention behind filing the petition. “You have to convince us on two aspects. One is whether you can challenge the order of the speaker and the second the delay of 15-20 years to file the petition,” the bench told senior counsel MR Venkatesh, who appeared for the petitioner.
Further, the bench wanted him to do some research to find any court judgments wherein the orders of the assembly speaker had been challenged. It also stated the merits of the petition will be tested before going into it.
The bench adjourned the matter to June 7 for hearing. The petitioner had challenged the 2006 decision of the assembly speaker to withdraw the sanction for prosecution granted in 2005 against Stalin, his father and late CM M Karunanidhi, Ponmudy and another late leader Ko Si Mani, who was a former minister, in the alleged flyover scam.