Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Purchase of TANSI property illegal, says counsel

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Sept. 3. By purchasing property owned by the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation (TANSI) in her capacity as Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, had committed an illegality, argued senior counsel in the Supreme Court during the final hearing of the `TANSI cases', in which she was acquitted by the Madras High Court.

Counsel T.R. Andhyarujina submitted before a two-Judge Bench comprising, Justice S. Rajendra Babu and Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi, hearing the appeals filed by the DMK lawyer, R.S. Bharathi, and the Janata Party President, Subramanian Swamy, against the High Court judgment dated December 4, 2001. The appeals seek to set aside the High Court judgment quashing the trial court's order sentencing Ms. Jayalalithaa for three years.

Counsel said Mr. Bharathi had the locus standi to prosecute the appeal in the absence of the State Government deciding not to prefer an appeal against the impugned judgment. These criminal appeals raised substantial questions of law on whether a Chief Minister could at all purchase a property belonging to the State Government violating the code of conduct which prohibited a Chief Minister and other Ministers from purchasing or bidding for any government property. He said that by buying the government property, Ms. Jayalalithaa had abused her office and obtained valuable gain and pecuniary advantage in violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and caused a loss of Rs. 3.5 crores to the Government.

He contended that the High Court had committed an error in holding that the TANSI lands were not the property of the State Government. The records would clearly show that the ownership of the lands vested with the State Government and that there had been gross under-valuation of the property resulting in loss to the State exchequer. He will continue his arguments tomorrow.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Students, police clash at Melur
• Explosives experts visit blast site
• Ransom: Jayalalithaa says she did not refer to Krishna
• We'll take on Jayalalithaa politically: Elangovan
• Union Minister's assurance to planters
• Purchase of TANSI property illegal, says counsel
• Panel mooted for woollen sector development
• Veerappan spotted at Kundal?
• 5 police officials summoned for `rights violations'
• Fighting off hunger, a reality at Athichapuram
• Poaching, drought threaten deer in Villupuram forests
• Keelavazhavu panchayat chief reinstated temporarily

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu