Supreme Court Dismisses TN Govt Plea Against HC Order For SIT Probe Into Organ Trading; Refuses To Direct CBI Investigation
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
15 Oct 2025 8:13 PM IST
The Supreme Court on October 10 dismissed a plea challenging the Madras High Court's order, which constituted a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the allegations of a human organ transplantation racket in the State, including kidney transplants.
The High Court in its August 28 order, noting that the State's response was "disappointing", stated that the SIT will be monitored by the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court.
Rejecting the State's plea against the High Court's order, a bench comprising Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice NV Anjaria observed: "Having considered the submissions as made by learned counsel for the parties, we find that formation of the Special Investigating Team (SIT) by the High Court do not warrant any interference except to clarify that the observations as made in Paragraph 33 of the impugned judgment indicating proven integrity of the officers of the State be treated to be made only with respect to the appointment of the SIT and it has no bearing with respect to the functioning and conduct of the officers of the State."
The observations in para 33 of the High Court's judgment were in reference to the Court asking for names of police officers with proven integrity to be a part of the SIT. But some reluctance was shown on the part of the Additional Advocate General in producing the names. In that regard, the High Court said its disappointed with the response of the State and thereafter, requested the Additional Registrar General, Madurai Bench of Madras High Court to secure the names of some police officials with proven integrity.
The Supreme Court also refused to entertain the plea of the petitioner seeking CBI investigation.It refused to relegate the investigation to Central Bureau of Investigation, as sought in one of the petitions, on grounds that an SIT has already been formed.
"We have also heard on the issue of relegating the investigation to the CBI as pressed upon in SLP (C) No. 28916 of 2025. However, at this stage, the investigation is in the hands of the SIT, therefore, we are not inclined to accept the prayer as made in SLP (C) No. 28916 of 2025."
The High Court has directed the SIT to submit reports before the Registrar (Additional Registrar General) or the Registrar (Judicial) of the Madurai bench periodically. The SIT consist of Inspector General of Police South Zone Premanand Sinha, Superintendent of Police (SP) Upper Bazaar Nilgiris NS Nisha, SP Tirunelveli N Silambarasan, SP Coimbatore Dr K Karthikeyan, and SP Madurai BK Arvind.
The High Court directed the DGP to provide all necessary assistance, including police personnel, infrastructure, and other requirements, to the SIT. The court also directed the SIT to ensure that the complaint given by the Chief Medical Officer, Namakkal, is acted upon, and an FIR is registered based on the complaint, and a report is submitted by the special team.
It added that further FIRs could be registered whenever such allegations or complaints are made or brought to the notice of the SIT. The Director of Medical and Rural Health Services and the jurisdictional Joint Directors of Health Services were also directed to provide all necessary assistance to the SIT to unearth incidents of human organ trafficking.
The directions were passed in a Public Interest Litigation filed by a practising lawyer SN Sathishwaran, seeking an investigation into illegal organ trafficking in the state. The petitioner had also alleged that Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College in Perambalur and Cether Hospital in Tiruchirappalli were involved in organ trafficking, and yet no FIR had been registered.
Case Details: THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NAD vs. S.N.SATHISHWARAN|SLP(C) No. 026990 - / 2025