CHENNAI: Expressing dissatisfaction with the behaviour of the special judge dealing with National Intelligence Agency (NIA) cases for not acting upon its order, the Madras High Court gave the judge one more opportunity to comply with its order.

"We don't appreciate the manner in which the special judge had carelessly dealt with the specific order of this court," said a division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice N Senthilkumar. The court extended one more opportunity to the special judge to comply with the order and posted the matter to March 3 for compliance.

The petitioner, Jameel Basha, and two others were arrested by the NIA and booked under sections 120B, 302, 34 of IPC, and 13, 18 18B of Unlawful Action (Prevention) Act, 1967. Basha filed an application with the special court constituted under the NIA Act, Poonamallee, seeking to serve a copy of the chargesheet filed against him.

On November 12, 2024, special judge KH Elavazhagan refused to provide the copy of the documents sought by the petitioner, noting that he was not entitled to the document because the court has not taken cognizance of the offence so far. Aggrieved by the decision of the special court, Basha moved the High Court.

On, January 23, a division bench directed the special judge to file a report explaining why cognizance has not been taken to the criminal case registered. Despite of the direction, the special judge failed to comply with it. The High Court then issued another order directing him to send the entire case papers and the original chargesheet.

When the case was taken up again on February 26, the court came to know that the special judge failed to send the chargesheet, which was specified in the earlier order.