The Supreme Court on Thursday declined the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa’s request for advancing the date of hearing of her bail petition in the disproportionate assets case, in which she has been sentenced to fours years in jail.
A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, had on October 17 granted Ms. Jayalalithaa bail, reposing faith in the oral assurances of her lawyer Fali Nariman that she would not delay the criminal appeal proceedings before the Karnataka High Court in the 18-year-old case.
However, the Bench did not dispose of the bail petition.
It scheduled a hearing for December 18 when Ms. Jayalalithaa and her three co-accused are to report back that they kept their word and filed the entire appeal documents and records in the High Court.
“You will prepare the paperbooks and keep it ready in two months. We will post this case for December 18. If you are ready, we will ask the …High Court to hear the appeal in three months. But Mr. Nariman, if the paperbooks are not ready, we will not give you extension for even one day,” the Chief Justice had observed then.
At an urgent mentioning on Thursday, Mr. Nariman asked the court to give a date earlier than December 18. He said the papers and records for the four accused had already been filed in the High Court. But the Bench said the hearing had already been fixed for a certain date.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy sought a copy of the appeal documents in order to contest it.
Ms. Jayalalithaa moved the Supreme Court after the High Court denied her bail. She was sent to jail on September 27 after a special court in Bengaluru had held her guilty of corruption.
