Chennai: Holding that a retired judge of the Madras high court does not come under the control of the state government and there is no reason to suspect he would not be able to conduct an inquiry independently, the Madras high court on Wednesday dismissed a PIL challenging the government order setting up commission of inquiry headed by retired HC judge A. Arumugasamy to inquire into Jayalalithaa’s death.
In his petition before first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar, AIADMK member PA Joseph had also contended that the commission was set up without complying with the mandatory requirements of obtaining the government opinion and having the Assembly pass a resolution clearing such appointment.
Rejecting this, the Bench said, “It is not mandatory as the provision says it may or shall and the State Legislature’s resolution is not required. Government notification is sufficient to appoint one man commission of Inquiry.” Referring to a judgment in the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose case, where a retired judge of Calcutta High Court was appointed as one-man commission, the Bench said, “a retired high court judge can be appointed as one man commission.” “The G.O passed by the state government appointing justice A. Arumugasamy as one man commission is not illegal”, the bench said.
