SC adjourns hearing by 3 weeks

In the plea, the seer submitted that the ‘Dhanurmasya Puja’ has been conducted without a break by all the Kanchi mutt heads and the ritual should not be allowed to be discontinued this year.

The Court also issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government on the special leave petition filed by the Acharya seeking bail in the Sankararaman case.

The bench directed the Tamil Nadu police to bring the ‘‘entire case diary’’ in original containing the documents collected as evidence during the investigation into the September 3 murder of Sankararaman, and asked the prosecution to be ready with all the documents — the alleged dying declaration, the documents pertaining to the ICICI Bank account from which funds were allegedly withdrawn to pay the assailants and the confessional statements of the two accused, Kadiravan and Rajni alias Chinna.

The bench noted that the two accused had given confessional statements under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on November 19 and that they had retracted the same before the magistrate on November 24. When senior counsel Fali S. Nariman, appearing for the petitioner, tried to point out the contradictions in the confessional statements of the accused before the police, the bench did not give any credence to them and remarked that those were irrelevant as they had been made before the police.

Nariman said, ‘‘I am obliged but the high court does not think so.’’

Senior counsel K.T.S. Tulsi, appearing for the Tamil Nadu police, initially said that the details of the investigation and the names of the witnesses could not be disclosed. He said it that was done, the witnesses might be killed. Later, he agreed to submit the entire case diary and other relevant documents, including the English translation of Tamil documents, in a sealed cover to the bench.

Meanwhile, the bench dismissed the PIL seeking transfer of investigation in the Sankararaman murder case to CBI and bail for the Sankaracharya.