The Supreme Court on Tuesday decried the Tamil Nadu government over what it termed as the brazen abuse of the legal system in the case of the cash-for-jobs affair, where former state minister V Senthil Balaji was involved. The apex court was particularly upset with the fact that more than 2,500 accused had been named in the case, as it was a form of fraud in the system, apparently to make the trial never-ending, including even beyond the life of Balaji.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a petition filed by one of the victims of the scam, who has challenged a March 28 order by the High Court of Madras. The legal aspect under evaluation now is the clubbing of four different charge sheets against Balaji into one trial case that had been permitted by the high court.
The bench observed that there are 2,500 accused, of which 2,000 fall in one category of cases and 500 in another. They are accused of being bribers who had given out the cash in a bid to secure jobs at the government, but they never got their jobs. It was the argument of the court that it is questionable as to whether or not there was an intention to create confusion, thus balkanising the judicial system, in the accusation of the complainants themselves as the accused, and subsequently, delaying the trial.
The justices also wanted to understand major parts of the case, like who the middlemen were and who the officials were involved in the execution of appointments, and those who acted under the directives of the former minister in Tamil Nadu. They noticed that such collective scheduling of assistant engineers, conductors, drivers, and tradesmen, in each case having different contexts, was doubtful and may jeopardize the integrity of the proceedings.
In June 2023, Balaji was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, and in early 2024, under pressure from court cases against him, he resigned. He had also resumed office successfully after getting bailed out, but later on stepped down after criticism by the Supreme Court. An overall order has since been granted by the court to hear all the related issues.
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