Chennai: Tamil Nadu govt has informed Madras high court that it has decided to withdraw its plea to review an earlier order of the court directing the DVAC to file an FIR based on the information provided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the suspected cash-for-job scam in the municipal administration department during K N Nehru’s tenure.Advocate-General Vijay Narayan submitted on Tuesday that the govt has decided to withdraw the review application in view of change in the regime.However, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra opposed the submission and said, “Can the govt change its stand because the administration has changed. The memo seeking to withdraw the review application says the policy of the present govt is that in criminal matters, especially in cases of corruption, the law should take its course. Now the question is, how does the law take its course?”Similarly, counsel appearing for other persons mentioned in the dossiers of the ED, including Nehru’s brothers, pointed out that they have also filed review petitions on the ground that though their names were mentioned in the documents they were not added as a party to the litigation and that the interim order to file an FIR was passed without hearing them.“The theory of dominus litis (master of litigation) does not apply in the present case. Just because the avatar changes, the whole substratum does not change. The sworn statements filed by the previous advocate-general cannot be washed away,” they added.Recording the submissions, the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said they would take up all the review applications and the state’s memo to withdraw for final hearing on July 10 and adjourned the hearing.On April 28, the bench clarified that it had not directed the DVAC to file an FIR against Nehru based on the information provided by the ED but only stated that an FIR must be registered regarding the alleged offence.
