The Madras High Court on Thursday quashed a Tamil Nadu government order directing the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to probe alleged irregularities in construction of a new secretariat complex during the DMK rule.
Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, who allowed the petitions by DMK president M K Stalin and Treasurer Duraimurugan challenging the September 24 GO and a subsequent letter to the DVAC asking it to take over the probe, held that the government order was passed in "a hasty manner"
While the GO had directed the Secretary to the now defunct Ragupathy Commission of Inquiry, appointed to look into the allegations, to handover all records, including evidence collected, to the DVAC, the September 28 letter asked the the agency to conduct a detailed inquiry.
The inquiry panel, set up by the then AIADMK government in 2011, was wound up based on an order by Justice S M Subramaniam.
Stalin and Duraimuragan had contended that the state government issued the GO and the letter without applying its mind as Justice Subramaniam had directed the government to scrutinise the documents to be received from the commission and initiate criminal prosecution if there was a prima facie case.
Justice Sathyanarayana, in his order issued on Thursday, said, "A reading of the impugned Government Order in its entirety would go to show that the government has not even cared to receive the files from the Commission, much less, to read and make out a prima facie case for referring the matter to the DVAC."
When the mission of the commission was incomplete and there was no report based on which the government can proceed further, the impugned GO was issued without jurisdiction and it was liable to be quashed, the Justice Sathyanarayana said.
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