Chennai: As per the order of the Supreme Court, AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala and her relatives V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Illavarasi have to surrender before the trial court in Karnataka, which convicted and sentenced them to undergo four years RI in connection with the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case.
The apex court has also ordered the trial court to take immediate steps to ensure that A2 to A-4 (Sasikala, Sudhakaran and Illavarasi) serve out the remainder of sentence awarded to them and take further steps in compliance with its judgment in accordance with law.
Though the apex court has used the words "surrender forthwith", As per the procedure, after getting the certified copies of the judgment of the Apex court, they have to go to the trial court, file a surrender application before the trial court, since the trial court judgment was restored by the Apex court in total. Thereafter, the trial court will send them into custody and thereafter the procedures relating to the payment of the fine and ill-gotten wealth identified by the trial court will have to be confiscated.
If they fail to surrender within a reasonable time, then the trial court would direct the investigating agency to secure the presence of the convicted persons and produce them before the trial court at the earliest.
"It is necessary and important that the certified copies are available with the prosecution, the convicted persons and the trial court to carry out the directions issued by the Supreme Court. The order passed by the Apex Court is nowadays uploaded on the official website and orders are also sent to the lower court with immediate effect and, therefore, it does not take very long to get an official copy of the order", said former additional public prosecutor Abudukumar Rajarathinam.
Senior advocate A. Sirajudeen said, "The Supreme Court used to issue copies of the order to the parties immediately. In the case of the filing of a review petition, till the sentence is suspended by a formal order passed by the court, the sentence operates".
