The DMK, a major ally of the Congress during the 2004 to 2009 UPA regime was tightlipped about the revelations by Markandey Katju, chairman, Press Council of India and former judge of the Supreme Court that a corrupt person was appointed as additional judge of the Madras High Court in spite of the fact that there were eight adverse entries against him recorded by various portfolio judges of the Madras High Court.
“But, one acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court by a single stroke of his pen deleted all those adverse entries and consequently he became an additional judge. He was in that post when I came as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in November 2004,” Katju had written in his blog. N Dinakar was the acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court before the appointment of Katju as the Chief Justice.
According to Katju, that judge had the support of a very important political leader of Tamil Nadu. “I was told that this was because, while as a district judge he had granted bail to that political leader,” he blogged . Though Katju has not named the judge, the political party and the leader of the party who was helped by the judge, it is clear from the chronology of events and politics that the judge is Santiago Ashok Kumar, the party is DMK and the leader is M Karunanidhi.
Karunanidhi was arrested by the Crime Branch-CID of Tamil Nadu Police in June 2001 in a midnight drama in connection with a corruption case. When his bail application came before Ashok Kumar, then a district judge, the Police as well as the State Government got a dressing down from him. “Is your heart made of muscle or mudIJ What was the pressure on you to arrest a 78-year-old man suffering from various ailmentsIJ” Ashok Kumar had asked the Police. Needless to say, Karunanidhi walked away with a bail.
By April 2003 Ashok Kumar was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Madras High Court. At that time the DMK was a constituent of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre. In 2004, the Congress-led UPA Government came to power. The DMK was the most powerful ally of the Congress at that time and had cornered many lucrative portfolios in the Union Cabinet because of its bargaining power.
Katju writes in his blog that he thought the said judge would not get extension in the backdrop of charges against him prepared by the Intelligence Bureau. Though the collegium of Supreme Court judges had decided not to extend the services of the said judge, the UPA ally from exerted pressure on the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A Union Minister of the regional party from Tamil Nadu warned Singh that if the judge was not given an extension, the UPA Government would fall. A panicked Singh was consoled by a senior Congress Minister. The Government saved the day by getting an extension to Ashok Kumar.
K G Balakrishnan, during his tenure as the Chief Justice of India, made Ashok Kumar a permanent judge and transferred him to Andhra Pradesh High Court from where he retired in 2008. What has taken legal and political circles in Tamil Nadu by surprise is the volte face made by Katju. He has waxed eloquence on Chief Minister Jayalalithaa whom he had criticised in the past for indifference to the directives of Press Council of India of which he is the chairman.