Chennai: In an extraordinary move, the Madras high court has decided to do a “suo motu revision” of the acquittal of Tamil Nadu higher education minister K Ponmudyand his wife in a disproportionate assets case by a court in Vellore on June 28. Justice N Anand Venkatesh has invoked Section 397 of CrPC and decided to hear the suo motu revision. Section 397 empowers the high court/judge to call for and examine the record of any proceeding before any subordinate criminal court within its/his jurisdiction for satisfying itself/ himself as to the correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence or order passed by that subordinate court.
The judge remarked that the court felt some injustice had been done, necessitating suo motu revision of the Vellore court order. He then directed the registry to list the case before his court. The case against Ponmudy and his wife P Visalakshi was registered in 2002, immediately after the AIADMK returned to office, saying the couple had amassed £140,000 disproportionate to the known sources of the minister’s income.
The prosecution charged Ponmudy with gathering illegal assets during his tenure as minister in the DMK cabinet between 1996 and 2001. Two cases pending before courts in Villupuram district were shifted to the Vellore court in 2022, where the trial continued from November 2022.