The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday concluded hearing the arguments on separate pleas of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and DMK leader K. Anbazhagan to participate in the proceedings of the appeals filed by AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa and three others questioning their conviction in the disproportionate assets case.
Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy, who is specially assigned to hear the appeals, has issued a direction for listing these pleas for dictating the orders on Thursday.
Earlier, Dr. Swamy, who personally argued his plea, said that he did not want to assist the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) but wanted to present his arguments on the DA case independently.
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Meanwhile, A. Saravanan, counsel for Mr. Anbazhagan, told the Court that his client had intervened in the case since 2002-03 whenever he observed illegalities in the process of trial, and assisted the prosecution with the permissions of the Supreme Court, the High Court and the trial court. He pleaded the Court to allow Mr. Anbazhagan to assist the SPP through his counsel as was allowed to do before the trial court.
On the other hand, SPP G. Bhavani Singh has said that Dr. Swamy, being the original complaint about the DA case, gets preference to assist the SPP.
The counsel for Ms. Jayalalithaa opposed the pleas of both Dr. Swamy and Mr. Anbazhagan.
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Adjourned
Meanwhile, a Division Bench of the High Court on Wednesday adjourned to Thursday the hearing on Mr. Anbazhagan’s appeal questioning the jurisdiction of the Tamil Nadu government, in appointing G. Bhavani Singh as SPP for the appeal filed by Ms. Jayalalithaa, against her conviction.
Mr. Anbazhagan’s plea came up before the Division Bench comprising Justice N. Kumar and Justice B. Veerappa after Chief Justice D.H. Waghela had recused himself from the case on Tuesday.