CHENNAI: The State government withdrew the review petition against the Madras High Court direction to register an FIR based on inputs from the Directorate of Enforcement on the alleged cash-for-jobs scam in the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department.

After being informed about this, the High Court adjourned the hearing to July 10.

Advocate General Vijay Narayanan informed the bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan that the State was withdrawing its review petition against the direction.

Appearing for senior DMK leader KN Nehru, who was the minister concerned when the alleged scam took place, senior counsel Siddharth Luthra noted that the decision to withdraw the review petition was taken after the change in government.

Objecting to this, Luthra contended that the State's stand could not change merely because there had been a change in administration.

While adjourning the hearing to July 10, the bench said no action should be taken against the former minister till June 23.

It added that the contempt petitions filed by AIADMK MP IS Inbadurai and others had become infructuous following the registration of an FIR by the State and would therefore be closed.

The matter relates to a communication sent by the agency seeking registration of a case over allegations that bribes running into several crores were collected for 2,538 appointments to posts including assistant engineer, junior engineer and sanitary inspector in the MAWS Department.

Based on the communication, Inbadurai and K Athinarayanan moved the court seeking registration of a case. On February 20, the chief justice’s Bench directed that an FIR be registered.

Later, Inbadurai filed a contempt petition alleging non-compliance, during which the then Advocate General PS Raman submitted that the DVAC had filed a review petition against the order.

The court was also informed that Nehru, his brothers KN Ravichandran and KN Manivannan, and their associates Kavi Prasad, Thiyagarajan Selvamani, D Ramesh, and others have also filed individual review applications.