Supreme Court gives split verdict in Jayalalithaa DA case
Justice Ms R. Banumathi disagreed and said Mr Singh was entitled to represent the prosecution.
New Delhi: In a major setback to the former Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa, the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a split verdict on the issue of the appointment of Bhavani Singh as the special public prosecutor in the appeals filed by her and three others in the Rs 66 cr disproportionate assets case in which they were awarded four years imprisonment by a trial court in Bengaluru.
While Justice Madan B. Lokur held the appointment of Bhavani Singh as special public prosecutor was not valid, Justice Ms R. Banumathi disagreed and said Mr Singh was entitled to represent the prosecution.
Following the split verdict, the bench requested the Chief Justice H.L. Dattu to post DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan’s appeal before a three-judge bench.
Meanwhile, Justice Kumaraswamy of the Karnataka High Court, who had reserved verdict on March 11, is understood to have written a letter to the CJI Mr Dattu to extend the time limit till April 30 for pronouncing the verdict.
By an order dated December 18, 2014, the apex court had granted time till April 17 to complete the appeal proceedings and to give verdict. A bench headed by the Chief Justice is scheduled to hear on April 17 the bail applications of Ms Jayalalithaa and other accused to consider whether the three-month time limit had been complied with or not.
When senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina, appearing for Mr Anbazhagan pleaded for extending the stay on pronouncement of verdict, the bench said “let the High Court judge decide what he wants to do. We leave it to him.”
Though the top court had not stayed the pronouncement of the verdict, judicial propriety demands that Justice Kumaraswamy may not give his verdict till three judges decide the matter one way or the other.