The Madras High Court on Tuesday decided to begin from Wednesday the final hearing on a suo motu revision petition taken up by it against the discharge of Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu from a disproportionate assets case.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh had in January this year clubbed the suo motu revision petitions taken up against Mr. Thennarasu, Revenue Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and former social Welfare Minister B. Valarmathi.
Since the legal issues to be decided in all these four cases were the same, the judge had decided to begin the hearing from Tuesday. However, G. Mariappan, the counsel on record in the revisions against the two Ministers, expressed inability to commence the arguments on the day. He told the judge that he had engaged a senior counsel to argue the two cases, and sought a short accommodation, following which After expressing displeasure over such request being made at the eleventh hour, the judge re-arranged the dates of hearing.
He decided to hear the case against Mr. Thennarasu on Wednesday and Thursday, and take up the revision against Mr. Panneerselvam on March 5 and 6. The case against Mr. Ramachandran would be heard on March 7 and 8.
After the counsel for the two Ministers and the former Chief Minister make their submissions, Advocate General P.S. Raman would make his common submissions on behalf of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption in all three cases and complete it on March 11.
The judge delinked the suo motu revision against Ms. Valarmathi from the batch, and directed the Registry to list this case in September first week since she had approached the Supreme Court and obtained interim orders from the Supreme Court against the hearing.
