Final hearing concludes in revision case against Tamil Nadu minister Periyasamy

The final hearing concluded in the suo motu revision of the discharge of rural development minister I Periyasamy on Tuesday in the Madras high court. He had been booked in a case of alleged irregular allotment of a plot under the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) to the personal security officer (Ganesan) of late former chief minister M Karunanidhi. Periyasamy was housing minister during the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) regime in 2008 and the state’s anti-graft body, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) booked him in 2011 when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) came to power.
Tamil Nadu advocate general PS Raman representing the DVAC submitted that the minister was discharged on the grounds of lack of prior sanction. In 2012, the then assembly Speaker P Dhanabal had granted sanction for prosecution but in 2016 Periyasamy filed a discharge petition that the sanction must be obtained from the governor and not the speaker. After multiple rounds of legal cases in the high court and Supreme Court, Periyasamy filed a second discharge petition in February 2023 and a special court accepted it in March 2023. The DVAC had not filed an appeal against his discharge leading to the justice taking it up suo moto.
Justice Anand Venkatesh said that the DVAC must not be under the impression that the minister has been given a “clean chit” but he was discharged because of technicality– lack of prior sanction. “The reason I took up this suo motu is because someone shouldn’t walk out scot free on the mere ground of technicality,” Justice Venkatesh said in oral orders according to Bar and Bench. “I want to set a system in place so that this never happens again. No one must think they can escape the law. They must know that even if they hold the highest position of power, they can’t go scot free.” The court reserved the judgement in the case.
Senior counsel Ranjit Kumar who had argued for the minister on Monday said that he had followed the rules to accord the housing plot.
This is among the revision of acquittal and discharge of six senior politicians of Tamil Nadu taken up by Justice Venkatesh in the High Court last August and September. Besides Periyasamy, others in the dock are– ministers Thangam Thennarasu (finance) and KKSSR Ramachandran (disaster and revenue), former chief minister and expelled AIADMK leader, O Panneerselvam and former AIADMK minister B Valarmathi and against K Ponmudi who has already been disqualified from his post as higher education minister after being convicted in another corruption case last December.