Madras high court stays DVAC case against former DMK minister K N Nehru till June 23

CHENNAI: On a day the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) registered a case against former DMK minister K N Nehru, his brothers and others in a suspected cash-for-job scam, Madras high court stayed all further proceedings against any of the parties till June 23.

In a first information report (FIR) dated June 5, DVAC has registered the corruption case against Nehru, N Ravichandran, K N Manivannan, D Ramesh, T Selvamani, Kavi Prasad, P Ponniah IAS and Ratesh and unknown others.

After advocate-general Vijay Narayan informed the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan on Friday that an FIR had been registered, the judges passed the interim order of stay. The DVAC case relates to the suspected corruption in recruitments flagged by Enforcement Directorate (ED).

At 12.30pm, senior counsel P H Arvindh Pandian, representing Nehru, made an urgent mention before the bench and said that despite an undertaking given by former advocate-general P S Raman that the matter would not be precipitated till the final hearing of the pleas scheduled on June 23, some action has been taken in connection with the case.

To this, the present advocate-general Vijay Narayan informed the court that based on the earlier interim order passed by the court directing registration of FIR forthwith, DVAC had registered on the information provided by ED flagging corruption in the municipal administration department. The bench then wondered how such action could be taken when all the parties had consented not to precipitate the matter till the cases are taken up for final hearing. “The former AG has given an undertaking to this effect,” the judges said.

Vijay Narayan, however, said: “But nothing is on record. If your lordships are saying so, there is no doubt that it was done. Your lordship should kindly appreciate my predicament. The papers that came to me for an opinion, only the interim order was available. I am not supposed to question the previous AG or the previous govt,” Vijay Narayan said.

“When I saw the papers, I found that there was no legal impediment. Only FIR has been registered. The undertaking given by the previous AG is not binding on this new govt,” he added. He further submitted that the state has decided to withdraw a review application moved against the interim order directing registration of FIR.

“Govt is a govt. It does not change. Only people managing it changes,” Arvindh Pandian said.

Later, the bench passed an interim order and said, “... Since the hearing is already fixed on June 23, no harm would be caused to the state if further proceedings are kept in abeyance till then.”