The Supreme Court expressed displeasure on Tuesday over the Tamil Nadu government “attempting to delay” the trial in cases involving former state minister V Senthil Balaji by implicating more than 2,000 people as accused in an alleged cash-for-jobs scam.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi described the attempt as a “complete fraud on the judicial system”, called for listing all matters pending before the top court involving Balaji and posted the case for hearing on Wednesday.
Justice Kant said, “We would like to know that besides the minister, who were the alleged brokers or middlemen? Who were the officers who acted on the recommendations of the minister? Who were the members of the selection committee? Who were the authorities who gave the appointment?”
Observing that the state’s attempt appears to be aimed at ensuring that the trial proceedings are not completed during Balaji’s lifetime, the bench said poor people, who were coerced by the former minister or his henchmen to pay for jobs, are being implicated as bribe givers and accused in cases related to the “scam”.
“You (state) are more keen to prosecute them so that in the entire lifetime of the minister, the trial proceedings never come to an end. This is your modus operandi. This is a complete fraud being committed on the system,” the bench told the counsel appearing in the court on behalf of the state.
Representing the Tamil Nadu government in the court, senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi and Amit Anand Tiwari claimed that the petitioner, Y Balaji, is indulging in forum shopping by approaching the Supreme Court directly on behalf of the victims of the alleged scam, instead of the high court.