Supreme Court stays trial in POTA case against Vaiko

The court directed that no further proceedings in the trial of POTA case against MDMK leader would take place.

In a major relief to MDMK leader Vaiko ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the POTA case trial proceedings against him under the stringent POTA provisions initiated by the Tamil Nadu Government for his alleged links with banned LTTE.

HT Image

Issuing notice to the State Government on an appeal filed by the MDMK leader, a Bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S B Sinha directed that no further proceedings in the trial of the POTA case against him would take place.

This comes as a major relief to Vaiko as the Madras High Court in its order dated April 29 had directed completion of the trial of the case by June 30.

Vaiko, in his appeal challenging the High Court order, had cited the April 8 decision of the Central POTA Review Committee which had held that there was no prima facie case made out against the MDMK leader for the State Government to proceed against him under Section 21 of the anti-terrorist law.

Despite the Committee directing the State Government to issue suitable directions to withdraw the prosecution against him, the Public Prosecutor in the case made a statement to the media that he would not file an application for withdrawal of the case against the petitioner, Vaiko's counsel, senior advocate Fali Nariman, alleged.

The High Court had dismissed Vaiko's writ petition seeking a direction to the State to withdraw the case saying it was for the public prosecutor to independently apply his mind to the matter and take a decision.