HC trashes Velumani’s contempt plea against NGO

Slamming the plea by the Minister as an abuse of the process of the court, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said, “As would be evident from the relevant order, there is nothing that says that the pendency of the proceedings should not allow adverse inference against the petitioner or the Minister, and that the court has not gone into the merits on either side.” 

Holding that the court did not appreciate that the plea has been moved for a short-sighted political purpose, the bench imposed a token cost of Rs 10 to be paid to any charitable institute of the Minister’s choice. 

However, appearing for Velumani, senior counsel ARL Sundaresan submitted that there was no malice in the plea and requested the bench not to impose a cost even if it is one rupee, noting that the order could have been misunderstood. The bench obliged to this. 

The bench also made it clear that there was no embargo or a gag order against anyone levelling such allegations, even if they were party to the proceedings. 

The issue relates to a PIL moved by Arappor Iyakkam seeking a direction to the DVAC to register an FIR based on its complaint of corruption against the Minister, who is the AIADMK candidate for Thondamuthur Assembly constituency. 

Velumani had submitted that the court-appointed DVAC officer had completed preliminary inquiry, based on which the State government decided to stop further action. But when the matter came up before court last time, the bench considered the ensuing election and adjourned the plea to April 21 citing that no adverse inference should be drawn against him based on which the contempt plea was moved.