NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Tamil Nadu government was trying to delay the trial in the alleged cash-for-jobs scam involving former state minister V. Senthil Balaji by naming more than 2,000 people as accused.
The court remarked that the move appeared aimed at ensuring the proceedings are not completed during Balaji’s lifetime.
A two-judge bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi called the attempt “a complete fraud on the judicial system” and directed that all matters pending before the Supreme Court involving Balaji be listed for hearing on Wednesday.
Justice Kant asked: “Besides the minister, who were the alleged brokers or middlemen? Who were the officers who acted on the minister’s recommendations? Who were the members of the selection committee? Who were the authorities who issued the appointments?”
The bench observed that poor people coerced by the former minister or his henchmen to pay for jobs are being implicated as bribe-givers and made accused in the cases. “You (the state) are keener to prosecute them so that, in the minister’s entire lifetime, the trial proceedings never conclude. This is your modus operandi. This is a complete fraud on the system,” the bench told the state’s counsel.
Senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi and Amit Anand Tiwari, for the state, argued that the petitioner, Y. Balaji, was engaging in forum shopping by approaching the Supreme Court directly on behalf of the alleged victims instead of the High Court. Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan accused the state of colluding with the former minister and attempting to delay the trial.
The court was hearing a petition by Y. Balaji challenging a March 28 Madras High Court order dismissing pleas against clubbing multiple charge sheets in cases related to the alleged scam.
According to a report submitted in April by the trial judge to the Supreme Court, there are around 2,300 accused in the cases involving Balaji. He, the MLA from Karur, was arrested on June 14, 2023, in connection with the alleged scam said to have occurred when he was the transport minister during the previous AIADMK regime (2011–2015).
The Enforcement Directorate filed a money laundering case in July 2021 after three FIRs were registered by the Tamil Nadu Police in 2018 and on the basis of complaints from aggrieved persons. The ED chargesheet claims the entire recruitment process in the transport department during Balaji’s tenure was turned into a “corrupt chiefdom.”
