Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran will face trial in the illegal telephone exchange case after the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the plea against the Madras High Court order. The HC had on July 25 directed the former Union Minister and other accused to face trial by setting aside the trial court order that discharged them from the case.
Opening arguments before a Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, senior advocate Vikas Singh claimed rules restrict entitlement of telephone connections to an MP and not for Ministers. He argued that if Maran is prosecuted for opening multiple telephone lines at his Chennai residence, then every Prime Minister in the country will go to jail for keeping multiple telephone connections.
The Bench, also comprising Justices R Banumathi and Navin Sinha, said, “In a regular case a Minister may be entitled to more than three phones. But the allegation is that as the Telecom Minister, you opened an entire exchange (with 700 phone lines) and utilised it for the benefit of running your brother’s business.” Maran’s brother Kalanidhi heads the Sun TV group.
As the SC dismissed the plea and directed Maran to face trial, advocate Vikas Singh told the court that he was appearing for an accused BSNl officer. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi stood up for Maran and pointed out that the High Court passed the order without hearing the accused. The SC replied, “That is the complaint of every litigant against every judge.” Dismissing the bunch of appeals filed by all the accused, the SC observed, “These are matters to be decided at trial. Go and face the trial.”
Other accused challenged the HC order on the ground that the judge decided on merits without hearing arguments on merits. The SC said, “We are not inclined to interfere. However, as recording our reasons for the above conclusion may affect the trial, we refrain from doing so. It will, naturally, be open for each of the accused to urge all contentions before the trial court and the trial will be held without being influenced by any of the observations/findings recorded in the impugned orders.”
The case relates to the UPA-1 regime when Dayanidhi, the grandnephew of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, was the Minister for Communication and Information Technology. According to the CBI, over 700 high-end telecommunication lines were installed at Maran’s residences in the Boat Club and Gopalapuram areas of Chennai for which bills were not raised, causing a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer.
The Special CBI court on March 14 discharged the Maran brothers and five other accused, holding there was no prima facie case against them. The other accused are former BSNl general manager K Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager MP Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran’s private secretary Gauthaman and some Sun TV officials. The CBI appealed against this order in the Madras HC that set aside the ruling and directed the special court to frame charges and conclude the trial within a year.