Today (March 28), the Madras High Court granted permission to the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw writ appeals filed against Chief Minister Stalin and Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan.
Chennai: Today (March 28), the Madras High Court granted permission to the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw two writ appeals initially filed during the previous AIADMK administration in 2019. These appeals were directed against the present Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, and Water Resources Minister, Duraimurugan.
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The Division Bench, comprising Justices R. Suresh Kumar and K. Kumaresh Babu, emphasized the principle that litigants cannot be compelled to pursue a case against their will, especially when they opt to abandon it entirely during the proceedings, without reserving any further rights.
Although J. Jayavardhan, a former Member of Parliament from the AIADMK, sought to intervene in the writ appeals, the judges deemed it unnecessary, considering the withdrawal of the appeals. They reasoned that entertaining such an intervention would be futile in light of the withdrawal.
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Justice Kumar, authoring the verdict, highlighted that Mr. Jayavardhan could explore legal recourse against the state’s decision to retract a government order issued on September 14, 2018. This order pertained to the initiation of a vigilance inquiry into the construction of a new Legislative Assembly-Secretariat complex.
Background
The controversy starts with a Commission of Inquiry established in 2011 to investigate alleged irregularities during the construction of the complex between 2008 and 2010, coinciding with the tenures of Mr. Stalin and Mr. Duraimurugan in key ministerial roles.
The Commission, originally led by retired High Court judge S. Thangaraj and later succeeded by R. Regupathy, faced legal challenges from Mr. Stalin, Mr. Duraimurugan, and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. They filed writ petitions in 2014, resulting in interim orders that effectively stayed the Commission’s proceedings.
In August 2018, Justice S.M. Subramaniam ordered the Commission to suspend due to its long inactivity. After Mr. Karunanidhi’s death, the AIADMK government dissolved the Commission and started a DVAC inquiry in September 2018.
Subsequently, Mr. Stalin and Mr. Duraimurugan contested the DVAC inquiry through a writ petition, leading Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana to set aside the government order on December 13, 2018. The government then lodged appeals against her decision in 2019.
However, with the change in administration following the DMK’s return to power in 2021, the government leader submitted a request on July 23, 2023, to withdraw the appeals, prompting Mr. Jayavardhan’s intervention a day later.
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Despite arguments from Mr. Jayavardhan’s counsel, V. Raghavachari, and the Advocate General, P.S. Raman, advocating for and against intervention, respectively, the Court upheld the right of litigants to withdraw cases, ultimately permitting the withdrawal of the appeals.
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