Madras HC rejects Kanchi Sankaracharya's plea

The Seer had asked the Pondicherry Govt to appoint a public prosecutor in place of those appointed by Tamil Nadu.

The Madras High Court has dismissed Kanchi Sankaracharya's petition opposing appearance of the Special Public Prosecutor appointed by the Tamil Nadu Government even after the case was transferred to a Pondicherry court.

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Justice M Jeyapaul rejected the Seer's contention saying that under sections 6, 7(1) and 9 of the CrPC, the Union Territory of Pondicherry alone was empowered to appoint a public prosecutor in its Sessions division.

The Sankaracharya had sought a direction to the Pondicherry Government to appoint a public prosecutor for the case in place of those appointed by Tamil Nadu.

The Seer's case relates to the September 2004 murder of Kancheepuram Varadaraja Perumal temple official Sankararaman.

Besides the Seer, 23 others, including Junior Sankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswathi, his younger brother Raghu and Mutt manager sundaresa Iyer, are arraigned in the case.

The Tamil Nadu government had appointed advocates PS Nagarajan and KS Ramasamy as special public prosecutors for the case which was transferred to Pondicherry by the Supreme Court on a petition from the seer last year.