Chennai: Tamil Nadu Rural Development Minister I Periyasamy suffered a major setback on Monday when the Madras High Court set aside his discharge in a corruption case and directed a lower court to conduct day-to-day trial against him.
“The legitimacy of the administration of criminal justice will be eroded and the public confidence will be shaken if MLAs and Ministers, facing corruption cases, can short circuit criminal trials,” Justice Anand Venkatesh, who had suo motu taken up for revision the Minister’s discharge from the case, said in his order.
The charge against Periyasamy was that he had indulged in irregularities in the allotment of a Tamil Nadu Housing Board plot to the personal secretary of former chief minister M Karunanidhi, during the erstwhile DMK regime in 2006-2011. While an initial petition filed by Periyasamy to discharge him from the case was rejected by the trial court, a second discharge petition was allowed last year after he became Minister.
“The public should not be led to believe that a trial against a politician in this State is nothing but a mockery of dispensing criminal justice,” the judge said, adding the order discharging the Minister was completely “specious and perverse”.
The High Court ordered re-transfer of the case to the special court for MP/MLA cases within a month and the accused must appear before the special court on March 28. Ordering day-to-day trial to be completed by July 31, the judge said, “If the accused adopt any dilatory tactics, it is open to trial court to remand them to custody.”
