HC allows govt. to revoke writ appeals filed against CM, Duraimurugan
The Madras High Court on Thursday permitted the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw two writ appeals filed during the previous AIADMK government in 2019 against the incumbent Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, and Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Suresh Kumar and K. Kumaresh Babu observed that the court could not compel a litigant to conduct a case when he/ she/it wished to abandon the matter completely without reserving any right whatsoever.
Though the AIADMK's former MP, J. Jayavardhan, had filed an application to get impleaded in the writ appeal, the judges closed the application by terming it unnecessary. They said it would be futile to allow the application when the appeals were withdrawn.
The judges, however, said Mr. Jayavardhan could seek appropriate legal remedy against the State’s present attempt to wriggle out of a Government Order issued on September 14, 2018, to conduct a vigilance inquiry into the construction of a new Legislative AssemblycumSecretariat Complex. Since the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) had conducted the inquiry and closed a complaint filed by the impleading petitioner too, he could always seek appropriate legal remedy in the manner known to law if he was so advised, the Division Bench said.
Case history
The issue relates to a commission of inquiry instituted in 2011 to probe the alleged irregularities in the construction of the AssemblycumSecretariat Complex between 2008 and 2010 when Mr. Stalin and Mr. Duraimurugan served as Deputy Chief Minister and Public Works Department Minister respectively. The government, then led by Jayalalithaa, had instituted the commission of inquiry and converted the complex at Government Omandurar Estate in Chennai into a multi superspeciality hospital. It was initially led by retired High Court judge S. Thangaraj and then by R. Regupathy.
Since the inquiry had been initiated even against former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, all three filed individual writ petitions before the High Court in 2014 challenging the constitution of the commission of inquiry and obtained interim orders in their favour, leading to the commission of inquiry becoming dormant since then. In August 2018, Justice S.M. Subramaniam directed the government to suspend the commission of inquiry since it had not made any headway for long. Days thereafter, Karunanidhi died.
Hence, the AIADMK government, led by Edappadi K. Palaniswami, wound up the commission of inquiry and instead ordered a DVAC inquiry in September 2018.
Mr. Stalin and Mr. Duraimurugan challenged the conduct of the DVAC inquiry by way of a writ petition before the High Court and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana (since retired) quashed the government order on December 13, 2018, after being convinced with the arguments advanced by senior counsel P. Wilson for the petitioners.
The government went on appeal against her judgment in 2019, but after the DMK returned to power in 2021, the Government
Pleader submitted a letter to the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court on July 23, 2023, requesting that the appeals be listed before the Division Bench for withdrawal.
Immediately, Mr. Jayavardhan filed an application on July 24, 2023, wanting to get impleaded as a party in the two writ appeals on the ground that he was a complainant in the same issue before the DVAC. Senior counsel V. Raghavachari appeared for him and pressed for allowing the impleading petition.
However, AdvocateGeneral P.S. Raman contended that it was the prerogative of the litigant concerned to withdraw a case and withdrawal could not be objected to by a third party.
Mr. Wilson too placed similar arguments and contended that even the court could not refuse permission to a litigant to withdraw a case.