Tamil Nadu Govt Approaches Supreme Court To Transfer Its Plea Against ED Raid Of TASMAC Offices From Madras High Court

The State of Tamil Nadu has approached the Supreme Court seeking a transfer of the petition filed by it in the Madras High Court against the ED search of TASMAC offices to any other High Court.

Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, for the State, mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna today, seeking an urgent listing on Monday, ahead of the High Court's hearing next week. He said that the State has approached under Article 139A of the Constitution (which gives the Supreme Court the power to transfer a case from one High Court to another High Court). Chaudhari said that an earlier petition filed by the State against the Enforcement Directorate is pending in the Supreme Court, in which various legal issues have been raised, and requested that the transfer matter be listed along with it.

CJI agreed to list the matter.

The petitions filed by the State Government and the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) in the High Court were initially listed before a bench comprising Justice MS Ramesh and Justice N Senthilkumar. On March 20, the High Court bench orally asked the ED to halt its probe, after questioning the Central Agency's actions. However, on the next hearing date, the said bench recused from hearing the matter. The matter was then listed before a bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar. The new bench has posted the matter for a final hearing on April 8