With the December 18 deadline set by the Supreme Court fast approaching, lawyers of the former Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary, Jayalalithaa, are working full time to get her appeal paperwork ready.
>Read more on Jayalalithaa wealth case verdict
Sources say more than “80 per cent” of the work has been completed. The legal team, headed by senior counsel B. Kumar and lawyer S. Senthil, are finalising detailed arguments to be submitted to the Karnataka High Court. In sharp focus was the methodology of evaluation adopted by the special court for calculating the value of the disproportionate assets and the court’s handling of evidence.
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“We should be ready [with the appeal] at least a week before the hearing,” an AIADMK source said.
The other major question is whether celebrated jurist Fali. S. Nariman, who represented Ms. Jayalalithaa in the Supreme Court for bail, would be roped in for the appeal. If done, he would replace Ram Jethmalani, who argued her bail petition without success in the High Court.
While hearing Ms. Jayalalithaa’s bail plea in October, the Supreme Court gave her two months to ready the paperwork connected to her appeal in the High Court against the judgment in the assets case.
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Ms. Jayalalithaa was sentenced to four-year simple imprisonment by a special court on September 27. The conviction disqualified her from Assembly membership and forced her to give up the post of Chief Minister.