Supreme Court to hear TN’s plea to transfer Tasmac case from Madras HC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider listing a plea of the Tamil Nadu government seeking transfer of its petition against the recent Enforcement Directorate raids on the state-run Tasmac from the Madras High Court to another high court outside the state.

Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhari mentioned the plea before the top court saying that the petition be heard urgently ahead of the next hearing in the high court. The state government has filed the plea under Article 139A of the Constitution.

The provision empowers the top court to transfer a case from one high court to another. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan assured the counsel that it would list the matter soon for a hearing. “We will list it,” said the CJI.

On March 20, the Madras High Court had directed the agency not to proceed with its raids at Tasmac headquarters in Chennai. It directed the ED to produce copies of the FIR and Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) along with any other material which it relied upon against Tasmac.

On March 25, a division bench of Justices M S Ramesh and N Senthilkumar of the Madras High Court recused itself from hearing the petitions filed by Tasmac against the raids.

The HC bench posted the matter for a final hearing on April 8. But the state government has moved the apex court before the hearing.

The state government and Tasmac had earlier moved the high court seeking orders against the recent raids. The agency, during its initial probe, claimed that it had uncovered serious financial irregularities involving distilleries and bottling units, unaccounted cash and illegal payments.

Tasmac, in its petition, requested the apex court to refrain ED from harassing its employees under the “pretext of a probe”. “The court should declare that the ED’s action of investigating the offence within the territorial limits of the state was violative of federalism,” the plea said.

ED must conduct fair probe: Annamalai

BJP chief Annamalai questioned as to why the TN government approached the SC seeking a transfer of its petition against the ED raids on Tasmac offices to some other HC.

“While 13 DMK ministers face asset misappropriation cases, why did the government ask only the Tasmac case to be transferred to another state? ED should hold a fair investigation and take appropriate action,” he said.