A judge of the Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday recused from hearing two petitions filed by K.C. Palanisamy, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing Aravakurichi in Karur district, in connection with an illegal sand mining case registered against him by the Mayanur police.
Justice M.M. Sundresh directed the High Court Registry to post the cases before some other judge. While one petition was filed to quash the First Information Report (FIR), the other sought to restrain the Karur Principal Sessions Judge from hearing the police plea for his custodial interrogation. In the petition to quash the FIR, the MLA claimed that the case had been foisted against him due to political vendetta as he was an important functionary of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and a former Member of Parliament representing Karur constituency.
He claimed that the FIR registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by Mayanur Village Administrative Officer was not sustainable in law as only a person authorised either by the Centre or the State government could lodge a complaint under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.
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In the other petition relating to police custody, the MLA said that a judicial magistrate had dismissed an application filed by the police seeking permission for custodial interrogation on September 23. Thereafter, the police filed a revision petition before the Karur Principal District and Sessions Court.