Madras high court extends interim stay on proceedings against Selvam

Chennai: The Madras high court has extended till January 8, 2019, the interim stay of all further proceedings in 12 defamation cases pending against S. Selvam, printer, publisher and editor of DMK party organ Murasoli, before the Special court.

Justice Pushpa Satyanarayana also dispensed with the personal appearance of Selvam before the special court for trial of criminal cases related to elected members of Parliament and members of legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu.

The judge posted to January 8, further hearing of the 12 petitions filed by Selvam.

Petitioner’s counsel R. Anitha submitted that the petitioner has been arraigned as an accused along with former Chief Minister late M. Karunanidhi in 12 defamation cases. Pursuant to the formation and functioning of the special court, all these cases were transferred to the special court. When the cases came up for hearing on August 9, 2018, a memo was filed by the counsel intimating the death of M. Karunanidhi and prayed to delete the name of erstwhile chief minister and the then president M. Karunanidhi from the cases. The very application of the government orders for transfer of the cases were totally improper for the reason that M. Karunanidhi, who was shown as an accused was no more now. He passed away on August 7, 2018,  itself, she added.

She said after his demise, he was the only remaining accused in the cases. He was not an elected MP or MLA. Hence, the application of the government order itself was totally wrong. This shows the utter and complete lack of application of mind while making the transfer of cases. The transfer of the cases after the demise of M. Karunanidhi was done with an oblique motive. The transfer of 12 cases in which, the petitioner alone was the accused to the special court was illegal since the other cases in which he was alone made as an accused was still pending before the principal sessions court, Anitha added.