Madras High Court asks why Jaya death probe panel should not be wound up in three months

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday wondered why it should not order the Justice Arumugasamy Commission, investigating the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, to file its report within three months.

The petitioner Thondan Subramani had urged the court to direct the authorities to wind up the commission, saying it is defunct and public money is being spent on it.

The petitioner said as per the government order dated August 25, 2017, the commission was supposed to complete its inquiry and submit a report in both English and Tamil in three months from the date of notification of the order. However, the term of the commission was extended from time to time.

Meanwhile, the management of Apollo Hospitals, where Jayalalithaa died, approached the Supreme Court regarding the correctness of the commission’s probe, particularly into the adequacy of the medical treatment provided to her.

“There was no progress in the proceedings of the commission for the past two years. But taxpayers’ money is still being spent on the commission which is defunct now,” the advocate M Gnanasekar representing the petitioner said.

He added that neither the state government nor the commission had moved the apex court to take steps to vacate the interim stay.

The government advocate P Muthukumar submitted that there is a Special Leave Petition (SLP) pending at the Supreme Court since 2019.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy admitted the plea and ordered notice to the state to file a detailed report in six weeks.

On this, the bench ordered the state to indicate in the report as to why the commission should not be directed to file its final report and wind up its business within the next three months.

The court adjourned the plea to September for the state to make its submissions.