The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the government’s order to constitute an inquiry commission led by a retired judge to probe former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's death.
When the matter came up before Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, petitioner PA Joseph argued that the commission should be set up only after an unanimous resolution was passed in the state Assembly.
"The present impugned government's order are illegal and passed in a mechanical manner without following the mandatory procedure as contemplated under section 3 of Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952," his counsel E Vijay Anand argued.
He said that by setting up a commission, the state had taken away the Centre's right to appoint an independent commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to probe Jayalalithaa's death in December last year. But the Tamil Nadu government argued that there was no need for the Centre to set up such a commission. After hearing both sides, the judges refused to agree with the petitioner and dismissed his petition.
On September 25, the Tamil Nadu government said that it has set up an inquiry commission headed by retired High Court Justice A Arumugaswamy to go into the death of the 68-year-old leader. Ever since Jayalalithaa's death, there have been hints of foul play in her death, with critics pointing fingers at her aide, the now jailed VK Sasikala.
The government's decision to set up an inquiry commission came couple of days after Forests Minister C Sreenivasan had sought people's apology for ‘lying’ about the health condition of Jayalalithaa when she was admitted in Apollo Hospital.
