Almost six months after the Karnataka government challenged the acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and others in a disproportionate assets case, the Supreme Court on Friday finally set February 2 as the date from which hearings in the appeal would begin.
Following an unexpected change in the constitution of the Bench, with Justice Amitava Roy replacing Justice RK Aggarwal as the puisne judge, the court agreed to hear the appeal on three consecutive days from February 2. Future dates would be determined at that time, depending on the court’s calendar.
Date issue The hearing started with senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the Karnataka government, pushing for the court to take up the matter on February 2. However, senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, representing one of the accused, asked Dave why he wanted to delay the hearing till February. “Why not have it next week?”
“Indeed, then why not,” Dave responded.
The court had fixed this hearing to debate a date for the final arguments and highlight the issues to be argued in the appeals.
Dismissing the requirement to further delay the hearing in order to determine what issues should be highlighted, Dave said, “issues are not determinative in setting down the calendar.”
In a lighter vein, when the lawyers were discussing the huge “bundles” involved in the case, Justice Roy said: “I hope what you mean by ‘bundles’ is case bundles and not bundles of any other form.”
Justice Ghose agreed that the case would be kept at the top of the cause list on the three days of the hearing in February.
Last July, during the maiden hearing of the appeal, the apex court had refused to stay the Karnataka High Court judgment of acquittal.
The Bench had issued notices to the accused — Jayalalithaa, her close aide N Sasikala, VN Sudhakaran, J Elavarasi — on all the petitions filed in the matter by the Karnataka government, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader K Anbazhagan, and an intervention application filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The court had also issued a notice on a separate petition filed by Anbazhagan challenging the Karnataka High Court order setting aside the confiscation of properties held by Indo-Doha Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Signora Enterprises, Ramraj Agro Mills, Meadow Agro Farms and Riverway Agro Products “for and on behalf of Jayalalithaa.”
Miscarriage of justice In its appeal, Karnataka termed the acquittal a “gross miscarriage of justice.” It said the judgment delivered on May 11 by Justice CR Kumaraswamy was “cryptic, lacks reasoning and illogical.” It ridiculed the calculations arrived at by the judge, which resulted in the exoneration of Jayalalithaa and three others in the corruption case.
Filed through State counsel and Supreme Court advocate Joseph Aristotle, the State’s appeal contended that Justice Kumaraswamy did not even bother to record cogent reasons for reversing the “well-considered judgment” delivered by trial court judge John Michael D’Cunha on September 27, 2014.