The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Tamil Nadu government for naming 2,500 individuals as accused in the high-profile cash-for-jobs scandal involving former state minister V Senthil Balaji, calling it a “fraud on the system” and a ploy to indefinitely delay the trial.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a plea filed by a victim of the scam challenging the Madras High Court’s March 28 order that permitted the clubbing of four separate charge sheets against Balaji into a single trial.
Expressing strong disapproval, the top court remarked that listing such a large number of accused — 2,000 in one group and 500 in another — most of whom were bribe-givers who did not receive the promised government jobs, was a strategy to derail the judicial process. “This modus operandi is a complete fraud on the system to ensure the trial does not conclude in Balaji’s lifetime,” the court observed.
The bench questioned the prosecution’s failure to identify key players in the recruitment racket. “Who are the alleged middlemen to whom the money was paid? Who were the officers who acted on the minister’s behest? Who sat on the appointment boards or executed the hirings?” the court asked.
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Amit Anand Tiwari, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government, responded that relevant information was available in a related petition that was not before the court at the time.
The court directed that all connected matters be listed together for hearing on Wednesday.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioner, opposed the clubbing of charge sheets, arguing that the alleged offences pertain to different posts — including assistant engineers, junior tradesmen, conductors, and drivers — and were not part of a common transaction. He warned that the inclusion of over 2,000 accused and 750 witnesses would render the trial unmanageable and delay justice by decades.
The petition also cited the Supreme Court’s earlier 2022 order that criticized the alleged collusion between Balaji and state agencies. The apex court had previously invalidated compromise agreements between Balaji and complainants and ordered that the trial against the former minister must proceed.
V Senthil Balaji was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in June 2023 in connection with the alleged scam and was removed from his electricity, prohibition, and excise portfolios. However, he continued as a minister without portfolio until February 2024. Though released on bail in September 2023, he was reinstated in the cabinet briefly before resigning again when the Supreme Court raised questions about his conduct, asking him to choose between retaining ministerial office or his liberty.
