Tamil Nadu Finance Minister N. Marie Wilson. File
| Picture Credit score: PTI
Justice V. Lakshminarayanan of the Madras Excessive Court docket on Friday (August 28, 2026) requested whether or not Tamil Nadu Finance Minister N. Marie Wilson was the King of England for him to not seem earlier than a Puducherry Judicial Justice of the Peace in reference to an assault case pending towards him.
The choose posed the question in the course of the listening to of a petition filed by the Minister to quash the cost sheet that had been filed towards him by the Lawspet police in Puducherry within the assault case registered on the premise of a grievance lodged by his sister-in-law, Careline Claude.
When the petitioner’s counsel said that the police appeared to have filed a further cost sheet towards the petitioner and his father however a replica of it had not been served on them, the choose retorted that the accused can be served with copies solely once they attend the court docket proceedings.
“You aren’t going to the court docket. How will they provide you a replica? When Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister of the nation, he appeared earlier than a court docket. You might be only a Minister. Allow us to not give an impression {that a} Minister is above the legislation,” the choose advised the counsel.
Initially, when the quash petition was listed for admission on July 9, 2026, Justice G.Ok. Ilanthiraiyan, who was holding the MP/MLA portfolio on the level of time, had referred the matter for mediation because it was represented that the complainant and the accused have been shut relations.
After a couple of rounds of mediation sittings, Ms. Claude’s counsel, Mohammed Rafi, on August 20, 2026, knowledgeable the court docket that his shopper was not eager about continuing additional with the mediation and that she wished to stroll out of it. Nevertheless, the Minister’s counsel objected to her choice.
He puzzled how the complainant might stroll out of the mediation course of halfway after having agreed to it in the course of the preliminary listening to of the quash plea. Nevertheless, Justice Lakshminarayanan replied that the court docket couldn’t pressure an unwilling get together to endure the method of mediation.
The choose, thereafter, determined to listen to the quash petition on deserves and was advised that the petitioner must withdraw the current petition and file a recent petition difficult the extra cost sheet. He permitted the petitioner to withdraw the plea after the counsel assured the court docket that the petitioner would seem earlier than the Justice of the Peace.
Revealed – August 28, 2026 04:13 pm IST
