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In the fourth such decision within a month, the Madras High Court has taken up suo motu revision of a 2012 local court order permitting the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) to withdraw a disproportionate assets (DA) case against former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, a year after his party AIADMK came to power.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who decided to review the discharge of three DMK ministers K Ponmudy, K K S S R Ramachandran, and Thangam Thennarasu from DA cases against them, has taken up the suo motu revision of Panneerselvam’s case as well.
While he punched holes in the judgement delivered by a court in Vellore on Ponmudy, justice Venkatesh has trained his guns on the DVAC in all three remaining cases. The DVAC, the state’s anti-corruption watchdog, which registered a case against Panneerselvam in 2006 after the DMK came to power filed a chargesheet in 2009.
However, the agency filed a petition before the Sivaganga Judicial Magistrate in 2012, a year after AIADMK returned to power, to withdraw the case.
In his remarks, justice Venkatesh said DVAC has become a “chameleon” and has begun to change its colours depending upon who is in power. “Unfortunately, courts have also acted in tandem,” he added. The judge also said the High Court will be failing in its constitutional duty if it “closes its eyes to such systemic failure”.
Last week, the judge had said that the court is of the considered opinion that "something is very rotten" in the Special Court for MP/MLA Cases at Sriviliputhur, while taking up suo motu revision of cases involving Ramachandran and Thennarasu.
He also came down heavily on officials from the DVAC, suggesting that they have changed their stance after 2021, in a veiled reference to the year DMK replaced AIADMK as the governing party in Tamil Nadu.