SC sets aside Madras HC orders that transferred 864 cases pending in special courts to other courts – The Hindu

The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed and set aside back-to-back orders passed by the Madras High Court in 2019, transferring a whopping 864 cases from special courts set up exclusively to try land grab cases in Tamil Nadu to other courts.

A Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna “deprecated” the orders passed by a Single Judge of the High Court in what was termed as a ‘special mentioning” of a case that was already disposed of.

“It is not understandable how in a disposed of matter with respect to only one case, further orders could have been passed by the High Court, transferring approximately 864 cases pending in different special courts in different districts, that too, on a ‘special mentioning’,” the apex court observed in the order.

The procedure adopted by the Single Judge directing the transfer of 864 cases from the special courts to other courts was “unknown to law”, the Bench observed. The order came a day after the Bench had decided to examine the very validity of the Tamil Nadu government notification of 2011 based on which special courts were set up to exclusively try land-grabbing cases.

On Wednesday, the hearing saw the presence of Tamil Nadu Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram, Additional Advocate General V. Krishnamurhty and advocate Joseph S. Aristotle. Advocates Dr. Ram Sankar, M.P. Srivignesh, Jose Abraham and others appeared in the case.

The court had raised questions to Tamil Nadu about why it did not enact an appropriate legislation on the lines of A.P. Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 1982 or better legislation.

A January 24 order of the apex court had referred to a Madras High Court report that 1,268 cases and 2,890 FIRs related to land-grabbing were pending. These included cases that are either pending before courts to try land-grabbing cases or before the jurisdictional magistrate.

There are 36 special courts in the State to exclusively try land-grabbing cases.