Soon after the Nadigar Sangam elections ended, a suo moto criminal contempt petition was filed against producer and actor Ishari Ganesh and advocate Anantharaman by Justice Anand Venkatesh for attempting to influence him, a Madras High Court judge, to pass orders in their favour.
Bringing this contempt case to a close, Ishari Ganesh and advocate Anantharaman have tendered an unconditional apology to the Madras High Court on Monday. Ishari Ganesh also came forward to contribute Rs 10 lakhs to Legal Services Authority.
Justices AM Sundaresh and M Nirmalkumar who heard the petition on Monday directed Ishari to make this contribution within two weeks for the welfare of transgender persons and abandoned children.
The issue came to light when Ishari Ganesh, who contested for the post of the General Secretary of the South Indian Film Artistes Association against actor Vishal, tried to get Anantharaman, a mutual friend of Ganesh and justice N Anand Venkatesh, to talk to the judge and postpone the elections.
Ganesh wanted the special hearing scheduled to hear Vishal’s petition on conducting Nadigar Sangam elections on time to be postponed, thereby pushing the date of the elections. Anantharaman, who was speaking for Ganesh, told Justice Anand Venkatesh that Ishari Ganesh had done a lot of help for his organisation and that he was therefore obligated to return the favour.
Justice Anand Venkatesh had observed at that point that the act was shocking - the fact that a party who was interested in the case and who's also a candidate in the Nadigar Sangam elections had approached a judge seeking favours.
The Nadigar Sangam elections took place on June 23 and recorded 1,604 votes out of a total of 3,171 votes in the union. The run-up to this year’s election was mired in controversy as the Registrar of Societies had cancelled the elections citing irregularities in the electoral roll.