Supreme Court Slams TN Govt Over Attempt To Delay Trial Against Senthil Balaji; Asks Why 2000 Persons Made Accused As Bribe-Givers

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 29) remarked that the State of Tamil Nadu was trying to delay the trial against ex-State Minister V Senthil Balaji in the 'cash-for-jobs' scam cases by adding about 2000 persons, who allegedly gave bribes to get jobs, as accused. The Court observed that the State's attempt appeared to be to ensure that the trials wouldn't be completed during the Minister's lifetime.

The Court was dealing with a plea challenging the clubbing of chargesheets.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi listed the matter tomorrow alongwith similar pending cases, while asking the state to respond to the following,

"We would like to know besides the minister, who are the alleged brokers/middlemen? Who are the officers who [allegedly] acted on recommendation of the minister? Members of the selection committee? Who are the authorities who gave appointment?"

Calling out the state's implication of about 2000-2500 persons as accused in just 2 cases, Justice Kant said, "Poor persons who were coerced by your Minister or by his henchmen to pay something 5000, 10000, 1 lakh, 2 lakh, you are more keen to prosecute them so that in the entire lifetime of the Minister, trial never comes to an end! That is your modus operandi! Completely fraud on the system...by implicating these so-called bribe givers, somebody trying to get his son employed, gave Rs.1 lakh, 2 lakh, you're making everyone an accused...2000 accused in 2 cases!".

The Court was dealing with a petition filed by Y Balaji, representing victims of the 'scam', assailing Madras High Court's March 28 order, which rejected petitions challenging the Special Court's clubbing of multiple supplementary charge sheets with the main charge sheet in one of the corruption cases (predicate offence) related to the 'scam'.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appeared for the petitioner and contended that the state is "colluding with its own Minister". 

Senior Advocates Amit Anand Tiwari and Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the State and alleged that the petitioner was indulging in forum shopping. The petitioner filed the instant SLP, but did not move the High Court, alleged Tiwari. The senior counsels also highlighted that another petition filed by the petitioner was not entertained by the Supreme Court 'on merits', wherein his conduct was also questioned.

Background

The cases relate to the alleged corrupt practices to secure employment in the Transport Corporation during Balaji's tenure as Minister (during 2011-2015).

The Madras High Court on March 28, 2025 dismissed four petitions filed by the Anti-Corruption Movement under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The petitions challenged trial court orders dated September 18 and October 1, 2024, which had directed the clubbing of four supplementary charge sheets filed in one of the cases related to fraudulent recruitment in the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, Chennai.

The High Court upheld the clubbing of charge sheets, noting that all the offences formed part of the same transaction and could not be treated as distinct for the purpose of separate trials. It also noted that the same set of witnesses and documents were involved across all the supplementary charge sheets.

It held that conducting separate trials would delay proceedings as the witnesses and documents would have to be examined repeatedly in each case, and highlighted that the total number of accused stood at 2,202 out of which 423 have appeared.

The petition is filed through AoR Neha Rathi.

Case Title: Y. BALAJI Versus THE STATE REPRESENTED BY ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF POLICE AND ANR., Diary No. 39380-2025 

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