The Supreme Court on Friday refused to give any relief to V.N. Sasikala, co-accused in the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa (and four others including Ms. Sasikala), seeking translated versions of questions framed by the special court in Tamil.
A Bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice J. Chelameswar did not agree with the submissions of the senior counsel for the petitioner, V. Giri that translated versions of the questions be kept as part of the record.
Senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina, appearing for K. Anbazhagan, DMK General Secretary, who wanted to implead in the case, explained to the court the genesis of the case and submitted that the whole object of filing the petition was to delay the trial.
The Bench while rejecting the plea for impleadment in a brief order said “On going through the impugned order of the High Court as well as the Trial Judge and the fact that the Trial Court has itself appointed one Mr. Harish, member of the Bar who is conversant with Tamil and English and helping the petitioner we are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order.” The Bench said “the counsel for the petitioner by pointing out certain difficulties in answering the questions under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code, wanted further direction to the Trial Court. We are not inclined to accept the same. However, if there is any practical difficulty, the petitioner is free to convey the same to the Court concerned and it is for the Presiding Judge to decide in accordance with law. With the above observation, the special leave petition is disposed of.”In her petition, Ms. Sasikala contended that the translated version of the evidence from Tamil to English was defective and not a true translation. The procedure adopted to translate the evidence from Tamil to English was also not in accordance with law. The defective translation would cause prejudice resulting in miscarriage of justice. She prayed for quashing the impugned order.
