The criminal justice system of the country is aggrieved, said Justice Anand Venkatesh on Wednesday, August 23, while suo motu taking up the revision of the acquittal and discharge of two Tamil Nadu ministers from disproportionate assets cases. The Madras High Court initiated revisions of the acquittal of minister KKSSR Ramachandran and discharge of minister Thangam Thennarasu, invoking section 397 (calling for records to exercise powers of revision) of the CrPC. This follows the revision of acquittal of Minister for Higher Education K Ponmudy and his wife Visalakshi, also initiated by the court, in a disproportionate wealth case.
The court ruled that the orders passed by the special court for MP’s and MLA’s cases (Principal Sessions Judge, Virudhunagar District at Srivilluputhur) suffers from “grave illegality” resulting in “gross miscarriage of justice”. The court also said that the discharge by the special court was ex-facie illegal as it did not have the power to discharge the accused without assigning any reason.
If this trend goes unchecked, the courts meant for MP/MLA trials would become a playground for all sorts of condemnable practices handcrafted and orchestrated to subvert and derail the criminal justice system, it observed.
Justice Venkatesh observed that both the orders revealed a “well-orchestrated pattern” as in all cases, discharge applications were filed, and the cases were adjourned for months and years till 2021. “In 2021, the political fortunes in the state smiled at the main accused who regained their positions as ministers in the state cabinet. A few months thereafter the state prosecution very magnanimously came forward and offered to conduct ‘further investigation’. The product of this ‘further investigation’ was a ‘closure report’ tailored to support the grounds for discharge,” the court observed.
The bench said that the prosecution then “whitewashed” its final report and presented a picture of “complete innocence”. “On its part, the special court accepted the closure report and proceeded to discharge the accused,” it said. The judiciary has also unfortunately become part of this “unholy alliance”, the court observed while pointing out that the procedure followed was absolutely wrong.
The court said something was “rotten in the special court for MP/MLA Cases at Srivilliputhur”, that discharged both ministers Thangam and Ramachandran. The special court “resorted to a curious judicial technique” and there were two types of incomprehensible judicial orders. “The first is where the order contains no reasons. This does not pose much of a problem as the order will have to be set aside on that ground. The second type is where the judge writes something which nobody, including the judge writing it, can comprehend. It appears that the special court adopted the second course since the order… is, on the face of it, utterly incomprehensible,” the order reads.
The court observed that there were multiple loopholes in the investigation conducted by the Investigation Officer, the submission of closure report and the way the court scrutinised the reports, and they reveal a sorry picture. “The three stakeholders viz., the accused, the prosecution and the special court have acted in tandem to reduce the administration of the criminal justice system to a complete farce”.
“The person aggrieved here is the criminal justice system of the country. We, as a constitutional court cannot let this happen. I don't have anything against any person. But I'll say that power corrupts everyone. There is a pattern about what is happening and this court has to step in,” the court observed, adding that “a perfect game was played between the accused and the prosecution”. The case has been adjourned to September 20 for hearing.
The DVAC filed a case against Minister for Industries Thangam Thennarasu and his wife Manimegalai in 2012. They were discharged in 2022. Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran, his wife Aadhilakshmi and another person identified as one KSP Shanmugamoorthy, were acquitted in 2023. The ministers were part of the state cabinet between 2006 and 2011.
On August 10, Justice Anand had taken up revision of a disproportionate assets case against Minister K Ponmudy and his wife, who were acquitted by Vellore principal district court on June 28 in a case filed by DVAC. The case was transferred from Villupuram district court to Vellore district court, which was termed as illegal by the Madras HC. Hearing the case on August 11, the judge said that the moves made in the case were calculated attempts to manipulate and subvert the criminal justice system.