The Tamil Nadu government has, once again, extended the tenure of Arumughaswamy commission, set up to probe the death of former chief minister Jayalalithaa. The tenure of the commission had ended on June 24. This the eighth time that the government extended the tenure of the one-man commission, headed by retired Justice Arumughaswamy.
The eighth extension will end on October 24, 2020, by when the state might get into poll mode.
There were several doubts raised by her own partymen and followers over the death of the former chief minister. The commission is yet to submit its final report on the exact cause of death.
The one-man commission, set up on September 25, 2017, by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, has so far examined at least 145 witnesses, including ministers, bureaucrats, doctors and members of the V. K. Sasikala family who were privy to the treatment administered to Jayalalithaa during her 75-day long hospitalisation.
Sasikala, who was a close confidante of the late chief minister and is now lodged at Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru, had submitted an affidavit with details on the treatment and the pre-existing comorbidities that Jayalalithaa had. Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam was summoned by the commission thrice during January and February 2019. One of the conditions put across by Panneerselvam to merge his faction with AIADMK was a probe into the death of Jayalalithaa. However, the deputy chief minister is yet to appear before the commission.
Meanwhile, on April 26, 2019, the Supreme Court had stayed the entire proceedings of the commission, based on a plea by the Apollo Hospitals saying the inquiry panel was functioning in a biased manner. The hospital went on an appeal to the apex court against the commission’s order, rejecting its request to constitute a 21-member medical expert committee to enquire into the treatment given to Jayalalithaa. Following this, the commission’s proceedings came to a temporary halt in April 2019.
Following this, on October 15, 2019, Arumughswamy, as the head of the commission, wrote to the state government to instruct its law officer in the Supreme Court to file a petition and to get the stay revoked. After a month’s delay, the state government filed a petition in the apex court on December 10, 2019. Even then, the commission’s tenure was quite unfruitful, as the probe was heading nowhere. This was when the commission was in its seventh extension.
The case, after Tamil Nadu government’s petition, was listed for hearing on January 6, 2020 in the Supreme Court. It was again listed on January 9, 2020, but was removed from the cause list. Once again, the case was seen on the advance cause list of the Supreme Court on March 24, by when the COVID-19 lockdown began. In the meantime, as there was no progress in getting the stay vacated, the commission, on February 20, 2020, once again wrote to the state government. This time the letter from Arumughaswamy asked the state government to instruct its law officer in the Supreme Court “not to allow deletion of the case from the list.” The commission has to go through the state government’s law officer to the apex court, for two reasons – one being it was constituted by the government, and two the commission cannot fight on its own. This is because the terms of reference of the inquiry itself was challenged by Apollo Hospitals.
With COVID-19 lockdown and the apex court’s summer vacation extended to June 1, the commission’s case never came up. On May 28, according to highly placed sources in the state government, Justice Arumughasamy had once again written to the state government to instruct its law officer to ensure that the case is listed and taken up for hearing, so that the commission could continue with its proceedings. Incidentally, at least one-third of the commission’s tenure had been inactive and the probe has headed nowhere.
For now, the commission’s tenure has been extended from June 25, for four more months. Also, the tenure of the support staff, working for the commission, has been extended for four months from July 10, 2020.
