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The Madras High Court connected Wednesday (March 25, 2026) allowed a plea by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Parliament (MP) Dayanidhi Maran to summon the Union Telecommunication Secretary to depose arsenic a tribunal witnesser earlier the proceedings tribunal successful Chennai successful the amerciable telephone speech lawsuit booked for alleged offences committed during his stint arsenic the Union Minister betwixt 2004 and 2007.
Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira wrote: “In the instant case, wherever the allegations impact the proviso and utilisation of telecommunication infrastructure, the mentation of administrative rules and the functioning of nationalist assemblage entities during the applicable period; the grounds of individuals who were straight connected with the applicable administrative processes, assumes significance.”
He said, the grounds of those individuals whitethorn shed airy connected the factual and procedural aspects underlying the allegations and whitethorn assistance the peculiar tribunal for MP/MLA cases successful Chennai to admit the evidence, already connected record, successful its due perspective. Therefore, it was indispensable to summon those inviduals and analyse them arsenic tribunal witnesses successful bid to discern the truth, helium added.
“In matters relating to departmental facilities and administrative privileges, the scope and quality of entitlement whitethorn alteration depending upon the presumption held and the functional requirements of the office. In specified circumstances, the idiosyncratic champion placed to clarify the administrative model governing specified entitlement would beryllium the Secretary (Telecom), who functions arsenic the senior-most enforcement authority,” the justice said.
What is the lawsuit each about?
The lawsuit against Mr. Maran and galore different co-accused had been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). According to the prosecution, helium had dishonestly procured ample fig of telecom facilities astatine his Boat Club residence arsenic good arsenic location bureau successful Chennai successful connivance with elder officials of BSNL and permitted those facilities to beryllium utilized for the concern purposes of Sun TV Network Limited.
Alleging that the CBI had not examined galore individuals arsenic prosecution witnesses thereby depriving them of a accidental to transverse analyse those witnesses, Mr. Maran and Sun TV Network’s Chief Technical Officer S. Kannan had approached the High Court with a plea to licence the summoning of those individuals arsenic tribunal witnesses. Mr. Maran had besides insisted upon accumulation of definite documents captious to the case.
Justice Chandira allowed Mr. Kannan’s sole petition and permitted the summoning of Rakesh Kumar Somani who had served arsenic AGM (Vigilance), BSNL, New Delhi. Similarly, the justice allowed 5 antithetic petitions filed by Mr. Maran and permitted summoning of the individuals named therein arsenic tribunal witnesses. He, however, dismissed the erstwhile Minister’s sixth petition for summoning individuals named A. Mahalingam and Mohan Lal Sindhi arsenic tribunal witnesses.
