Chennai, Mar 28 (IANS): The Madras High Court on Thursday permitted the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw two writ appeals filed during the previous AIADMK government in 2019 against Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan.

A division bench of Justices R. Suresh Kumar and K. Kumaresh Babu stated that the court could not compel a litigant to conduct a case when he/she/it wishes to abandon the matter completely.

The AIADMK's former MP J.Jayavardhan had filed an application to get impleaded in the writ appeal, but the court rejected it as unnecessary, saying that it would be a futile exercise to allow the application when the appeals had been withdrawn.

Justice Suresh Kumar, however, said that Jayavardhan could seek appropriate legal remedy against the state’s present attempt to counter a government order issued on September 14, 2018, for conducting a vigilance inquiry into the construction of a new Legislative Assembly complex.

The division bench also said that as the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had conducted the inquiry and closed a complaint, he could always seek appropriate legal remedy.

The issue relates to a Commission of Inquiry instituted in 2011 to probe into alleged irregularities in the construction of the Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex between 2008 and 2010 when Stalin and Duraimurugan served as Deputy Chief Minister and Public Works Department Minister, respectively.