In April 2019, the Supreme Court in Chennai had stayed proceedings before the commission following a plea by Apollo Hospitals that the functioning of the panel was ‘full of bias’.
Justice (Retd) A. Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s death case told the Supreme Court on Thursday that only four witnesses are yet to be examined and the panel should be allowed to complete its work and present its fact-finding report before the state assembly .
Justice Abdul S. A bench headed by Nazir assured the commission, represented by senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, that its arguments in this regard would be heard in detail on September 23.
The Supreme Court had in April 2019 stayed proceedings before the commission on the basis of a plea by Apollo Hospitals in Chennai, where Jayalalithaa died in 2016, that the functioning of the probe panel was “full of bias”.
“Only four witnesses are yet to be examined. The fact-finding inquiry report should be presented in the House. Then the house will decide… 155 witnesses have been examined… there are only four more witnesses. The investigation is pending since 2017,” Mr Kumar submitted.
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The Tamil Nadu government, represented by senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Joseph S Aristotle, said the commission needs to complete its task. Senior advocate Aryama Sundaram, appearing for Apollo, agreed with the court’s decision to fix the matter for hearing next week.
In 2019, the court stayed the investigation after Apollo alleged the commissionInstead of conducting a fair investigation, he had turned himself into an adversary. Mr Sundaram then argued for the hospitals that the proceedings before the inquiry panel were creating “serious prejudice” to the hospital’s reputation.
Mr Sundaram had then informed the court that the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission was also filing an application “on its part”, alleging that the hospital had shown negligence in treating Jayalalithaa.
Apollo Hospitals submitted that instead of conducting a fair investigation, the commission had filed a petition alleging “criminal intent” on the part of the hospital and its doctors.
Mr. Sundaram had submitted that the commission had also sought the medical report of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, who died in 1987.
Apollo Hospitals had submitted that a detailed medical report about the circumstances of Jayalalithaa’s death was issued in March 2017 to end speculations.
Tamil Nadu had in 2019 urged the court not to stay the commission’s proceedings. However, the bench refused to oblige the state and stayed the probe.
NS The state had appointed a commission of inquiry headed by Justice Arumughaswamy, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, on September 25, 2017.. The commission’s reference was to examine the circumstances that led to Jayalalithaa’s hospitalization on September 22, 2016 and the nature of treatment to determine the reason for her hospitalization.
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