SC refuses to stay Jaya acquittal

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Karnataka High Court’s decision acquitting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha and three others in the disproportionate assets case.

A bench of Justices P C Ghose and R K Agrawal issued a notice to the AIADMK chief and her former close aide Sasikala and two of her relatives, V N Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, seeking their response within eight weeks on a batch of petitions challenging the high court order.

The Karnataka government, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and DMK leader K Anabazhagan urged the apex court to interfere in the May 11 order setting aside her conviction and five-year jail term.

Senior advocate and special public prosecutor B V Acharya sought a direction to stay the high court order. Senior advocate T R Andhyarujina appeared for Anbazhagan. The bench, however, said they would hear the matter and would issue the notice.

The court also agreed to hear Anbazhagan’s plea challenging the high court order setting aside confiscation of properties of the accused.

Senior advocate L N Rao, appearing for Jayalalitha, assured the court that there would not be any dealings related to the properties. The Karnataka government’s appeal, filed by advocate Joseph Aristotle, urged the court to set aside the order exonerating Jayalalitha and three others in the case relating to her tenure as chief minister between 1991 to 1996.

As an interim relief, the petition sought direction for stay on the operation of the high court order, which had resulted in removal of Jayalalitha’s disqualification as an MLA.

The State government claimed the high court’s “illogical” acquittal of Jayalalitha was made on “arithmetic error” in the case relating to the disproportionate assets.  It contended that the high court had committed a grave error while calculating the disproportionate assets.