The Supreme Court on Friday said it will lay down
the law on the issue of high courts revoking orders dictated in open courts
after the top court came across a case in which the Madras HC quashed a money
laundering case against a former IPS officer and later modified its direction and
reheard the matter.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George
Masih stayed the proceedings in a money laundering case against former IPS
officer M S Jaffer Sait registered in connection with an alleged illegal
allotment of a Tamil Nadu Housing Board plot.
The top court posted the matter for hearing on
November 22.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by Sait, who
contended that his case was reheard within days after allowing his plea for
quashing of the proceedings in the matter.
The SC bench had earlier sought report from from the
Madras High Court's Registrar General on the issue.
On September 30, after inspecting the report from
the HC, the top court had called the decision of the high court to re-hear the
matter as 'absolutely wrong'.
A high court bench of
Justices S M Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam had on August 21 quashed the
proceedings against Sait on the grounds that the corruption case registered by
the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), which is the predicate
offence for the ED case, has already been quashed by the high court.
Later, the order was revoked and the matter was
reheard and judgment was reserved.
According to Sait, a complaint was made in 2011
accusing him of having gotten illegal allotment of Tamil Nadu Housing Board
plots at Thiruvanmiyur in Chennai. Based on the complaint, the DVAC registered
an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
On May 23, 2019, the high court quashed the FIR.
Subsequently, on June 22, 2020, the ED registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case
Information Report) based on the case registered by the DVAC.
However, the high court quashed the ED case on the
basis of previous quashing of the predicate corruption case by the Directorate
of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.