New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday imposed an interim stay on order of the Madras High Court setting aside the trial court orders discharging Tamil Nadu ministers KKSSR Ramachandran and Thangam Thenarasu in disproportionate assets cases and restoring the corruption cases.
A bench comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice PK Mishra, while hearing appeals from the Tamil Nadu ministers and imposing an interim stay on the High Court order, issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government and posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.
Advocate General Pattabhi Sundar Raman, appearing for the State of Tamil Nadu, submitted before the court the state government was planning to file a special leave petition against the High Court order.
High Court restored disproportionate assets case against DMK ministers
Madras High Court judge Justice Anand Venkatesh restored the disproportionate assets case against the Tamil Nadu ministers on August 7 and directed the trial court to frame charges against them and proceed in accordance with the trial expeditiously on a day-to-day basis as prima facie materials were available.
The High Court had directed Ramachandran to appear before the trial court on September 9 and Thangam Thenarasu to appear before the trial court on September 11.
High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of discharge of ministers by trial court
The High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the orders of the trial courts discharging the ministers in August last year, saying that the approach of the trial court was ex-facie illegal in discharging them without assigning any reason.
What are the allegations against ministers?
The corruption allegations against both the ministers is during the period 2006-2011 when they were serving as ministers in a DMK government. The trial court discharged them after the DVAC filed a final report in the cases saying that no offences were made out.
It was alleged that Ramachandran, along with his wife P Visalatchi and his friend K S P Shanmugamoorthy, accumulated wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income during his tenure as a minister in the DMK government during 2006-2011. The allegation against Thangam Thenarasu is that he and his wife T Manimegalai accumulated wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income during his tenure as a minister in the DMK government during 2006-2011.