'Terms of reference of judicial panel wide enough to include issues, correctness of Jaya treatment'

The Tamil Nadu government Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that the terms of reference of the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission, probing the death of late J Jayalalithaa, were wide enough to include issues and correctness of the treatment provided to her at the Apollo hospital here.

State Advocate-General Vijay Narayan made the submissions before a division bench of justices R Subbiah and Krishnan Ramasamy, hearing a petition by the hospital opposing the panel going into the medical treatment given to former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa, who died in December 2016.

Narayan submitted that the state government constituted the commission of inquiry to arrive at the truth since many people were spreading rumours about the cause of her death.

The final report or finding of the commission cannot be anticipated at this stage as it would be in the realm of speculation, he said.

Moreover, the Apollo hospitals had not challenged the government order constituting the commission, but had fully participated in the proceedings. Therefore they cannot challenge the terms of reference now, he contended.

Senior counsel SRL Sundaresan, representing the commission, submitted that the panel has powers to conduct such an inquiry, hear witnesses and record their submissions and summon people to depose before the commission.

He also noted that the object of the commission was not to merely collect the documents and records and forward it to the state government.

On the charge that the commission does not have expertise to look into the treatment provided by the hospital, Sundaresan said a panel of doctors has been appointed to go into the documents provided by Apollo and that the commission was awaiting a report from the panel.

Recording the submissions, the bench posted the pleas to March 8 for further hearing.