Justice N. Anand Venkatesh to continue hearing suo motu revisions against sitting and former T.N. Ministers
The Hindu
Madras High Court Chief Justice allows Justice Venkatesh to continue hearing six suo motu criminal revision petitions.
Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala has decided to let Justice N. Anand Venkatesh continue the hearing of six suo motu criminal revision petitions taken up by him last year against the acquittal/discharge of three sitting Ministers, a former Chief Minister and two ex-Ministers from various criminal cases.
After the Supreme Court on February 5 requested the Madras High Court Chief Justice to take a call on the judge before whom the suo motu cases could be listed for hearing, the Chief Justice assigned the matters to Justice Venkatesh who had initiated all six suo motu proceedings between August and September last year.
On January 9, the judge had clubbed the revision petitions against Revenue Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and former Social Welfare Minister B. Valarmathi, since they involved similar issues, and decided to hear them between February 5 and 9.
Since the revision petition against Rural Development Minister I. Periyasamy was a little different from the others, he decided to hear that petition separately between February 12 and 13. Similarly, a decision was taken to hear the suo motu revision against former Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy between February 19 to 22.
However, after fixing of the dates for hearing, Mr. Ramachandran approached the Supreme Court contending that the judge had not obtained the prior approval of the Chief Justice before initiating the suo motu proceedings and therefore the apex court requested the Chief Justice to take a fresh call on the issue.
Accordingly, when the revision petitions taken up against Mr. Ramachandran and three others were listed before Justice Venkatesh on Thursday, the judge told the lawyers that the Chief Justice had specifically assigned all the six suo motu revision petitions to be listed before him.
Since the counsel sought some time to commence their arguments, the judge decided to hear the batch of four cases between February 27 and 29 and again on March 5. The two other cases would get listed as per the dates already fixed, he said.
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