CHENNAI, SEPT 19: Senior advocate Vinod Arvind Bhabde on Tuesday told a special court, trying the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation (TANSI) land deal case, that the Code of Conduct for Central and government ministers were mere guidelines and not binding in law.In the final arguments before special judge P Anbazhagan, in which former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha is the main accused, Bhabde, a Supreme Court lawyer arguing on behalf of the AIADMK supremo, contended that the Supreme Court had said that courts could not enforce the code, except when public servants infringed on the rights of citizens.When it could not be enforced, how could a person be punished for violating it, he asked while referring to the prosecution charge that Jayalalitha as chief minister had violated the code and hence should be punished.``It will be a violation of law if one is compelled to adhere to the code as it has no backing in law'', he contended and added that any deviation on moral or ethical standards by a public servant was a matter for the legislature to decide.On IPC Sec. 169, under which one of the charges have bee named against the former chief minister, Bhabde contended that it operated only in tandem and could not be read alone.Claiming that the section did not absolutely bar purchase of state property by public servants, he contended that it allowed purchase of such property with the permission of the authority concerned.The section prohibited public servants from purchasing or bidding for `certain' properties, without identifying the properties that were beyond their reach, he pointed out and added that Sec. 169 had to be read along with some other provision of law or act which specified properties that could not be acquired by public servants, he said.In this connection he referred to Sec. 189 of the Railway Act and the Cattle Trespass Act which clearly laid down what could be purchased by public servants.Referring to the purchase of TANSI property, Bhabde argued that the government had given absolute ownership of the property in question to TANSI and hence it could no longer be termed as government property. ``There is a big difference between government property and corporation property'', he contended.
