The Supreme Court on Friday (August 21, 2026) set aside an order of the Madras High Court which directed the trial court to summon the Union Telecom Secretary Amit Agarwal as a court witness in a case against DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran relating to the alleged setting up of “illegal” telephone exchanges.

A bench comprising Justices K.V.

Viswanathan and Arun Palli was hearing a plea filed by the CBI challenging the March 25 order of the High Court.

Illegal telephone exchange case: Madras High Court allows Dayanidhi Maran’s plea to summon Union Telecom Secretary as court witness "Now that we are inclined to restore the order of the trial court, we permit the respondent (Mr.

Maran) to summon the Secretary Telecom as a defence witness as indicated in our August 10 order.

We set aside the High Court's order and restore the Trial Court's order.

We permit the respondent to have the option to summon the secretary, telecom, as a defence witness, if he so desires," the bench said.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Mr.

Maran, objected to the Telecom Secretary being summoned as a defence witness and said it would be appropriate if he summoned as Court witness.

On August 10, the Apex Court had asked advocates appearing for Mr.

Maran as to why the Telecom Secretary cannot be summoned as a defence witness.

It had also asked Additional Solicitor General S.V.

Raju, appearing for the CBI, whether he would have any objection if the Secretary is summoned as a defence witness.

Raju had told the Court that he would not object to such a direction.

On March 25, the High Court had allowed a plea by Mr.

Maran to summon the Union Telecommunication Secretary to depose as a court witness before the Trial Court in Chennai in the case.

The High Court had said that Secretary's evidence was relevant to determining whether Mr.

Maran, who was Minister of Communications and Information Technology between 2004 and 2007, was entitled to service-category telecom connections during the relevant period.

The Trial Court by its order dated October 10, 2025, had rejected Mr.

Maran's prayer to summon the Telecom Secretary as the court witness.

The charges date back to the time when Mr.

Maran was the Union Minister for Telecommunications and Information Technology in the UPA-1 government.

The CBI has alleged that he misused his official position and got private telephone exchanges installed at his various residences here which were used for business transactions of the Sun Network.