SC defers hearing in Jaya case to Feb 23

 The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the day-to-day hearing to February 23 on the appeal by the Karnataka government against the High Court’s acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and three others in the disproportionate assets case.

A bench presided over by Justice P C Ghose decided to postpone the scheduled hearing from February 2 after senior advocate L N Rao pointed out a five-judge Constitution Bench, including Justice Ghose, would be holding the hearing in the matter related to the President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh from February 1, which could subsequently continue on other days.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave agreed to Rao’s contention, prompting the court to fix a new date for hearing in the case.

Intervene in hearing

Besides the Karnataka government, DMK leader K Anbazhagan and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy have also been allowed to intervene in the hearing of the special leave petition against the Karnataka High Court judgement of acquittal on May 11, 2015.

Jayalalithaa and co-accused N Sasikala, J Elavarasi and V N Sudhakaran were held guilty in September 2014 under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and handed out a five-year jail term with a fine by a Bengaluru special court.