New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday declined DMK leader K. Anbazhagan’s plea to put on hold the hearing on former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s challenge to her conviction by the Karnataka High Court in a disproportionate assets case, IANS reports.
The apex court also said it would examine whether the presence of G. Bhawani Singh as special public prosecutor (SPP) vitiated the hearing of the appeal.
The bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel agreed to examine the plea by Anbazhagan who contended that the Tamil Nadu government had no jurisdiction in appointing Bhavani Singh as SPP and even the Karnataka government too was opposed to his appointment as SPP.
Anbazhagan’s plea will come up for final hearing on March 18. As counsel T.R. Andhyarujina, appearing for Anbazhagan, reiterated his argument that “(the hearing of) this appeal is vitiated by the presence of SPP Bhavani Singh who has no authority to appear before the high court”, Justice Lokur asked: “T.R. Andhyarujina, will you make this submission if the high court upholds the order of conviction by the trial court?”
“Supposing the conviction is upheld, you may not remain aggrieved, and if it is not upheld, then you can agitate your objection of appeal being vitiated,” the court told Andhyarujina, who replied: “I will be happy if conviction is upheld.”
Taking the court through the proceedings of the trial court and its observations about the conduct of Bhavani Singh, Andhyarujina told the court that Bhavani Singh’s “credibility was doubtful”.
Urging the court to hear their objections on the presence of Bhavani Singh as SPP before the high court hearing Jayalalithaa’s appeal against her conviction, Andhyarujina said a wrong interpretation was being given to Section 301 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to allow the continued presence of Singh even before the high court. The counsel told the apex court that by its earlier order, it had said that the Karnataka government, in consultation with the Karnataka High Court chief justice, would appoint SPP to lead the disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa before the trial court and Bhavani Singh ceases in that role after Jayalalithaa was convicted and sentenced by the trial court.
