Justice N. Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court would be holding the portfolio for cases against sitting as well as former Members of the Parliament as well as the Legislative Assembly from January 2, 2024 according to the roster prepared for the first three months in the coming year.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala, in his capacity as the master of the roster, had decided to give back the MP/MLA portfolio to Justice Venkatesh after a break of three months from October 3, 2023 when the judge had been sitting in the Madurai Bench of the High Court.
During his previous tenure in the portfolio, Justice Venkatesh had taken suo motu revision against discharge/acquittal of Ministers K. Ponmudy, K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, I.. Periyasamy and Thangam Thennarasu as well as former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and former Minister B. Valarmathi from different cases.
The six suo motu revision petitions taken up in August this year had caused quite a jitter in the political circles. Thereafter, he had to discontinue the hearing of those petitions due to his shift to the Madurai Bench and therefore, Justice G. Jayachandran was given the portfolio for three months beginning from October 3.
However, none of the six suo motu revision petitions have been disposed of since then and hence there was lot of anxiety among the lawyers in the High Court over which judge of the High Court would get the MP/MLA portfolio during the next three month roster period beginning from January 2, 2024.
The anxiety was high especially because Justice Venkatesh was slated to return to the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai after completion of his tenure in the Madurai Bench. An official sitting arrangement list released on Friday confirmed that Justice Venkatesh would be holding the portfolio once again.
