Chennai, July 29 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday asked the city-based advocate S.Subramaniam Balaji to file a petition to transfer his case against the freebies announced by the AIADMK government from the Madras High Court to it.
Hearing the appeal filed by Balaji against the decision of the Madurai bench of Madras High Court in his case against the then DMK government’s free colour television (CTV) distribution, the Supreme Court acceded to the transfer request of Balaji’s counsel Arvind P.Datar.
Speaking to IANS over phone from New Delhi, Balaji said: ‘We had told the court about the similar case in the Madras High Court filed recently by me, and requested the same to be transferred to the apex court.’
‘Hearing that, the court asked us to file a transfer petition. We will file the transfer petition next week. The next hearing in the Supreme Court will be on Aug 19,’ he added.
While his appeal was pending in the Supreme Court, the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu announced freebies (laptops, mixers, grinders, rice, cattle, fans and others) and Balaji filed a fresh case against this measure.
On July 21, the high court issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government, giving it two weeks’ time to respond to the petition.
‘Poll promises are unconstitutional and bribery, amounting to corrupt practice under the Representation of People Act,’ Balaji said.
‘The government cannot enrich private individuals out of consolidated funds. The government cannot create a private asset out of public funds. Giving free CTVs or other items is precisely that,’ he said.
According to him, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was the guardian of the exchequer and had enough power to stop the government orders permitting freebies.
