The Supreme Court on Friday extended till June 16 the stay on trial in the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and three others pending in a special court in Bangalore.
Acting on a special leave petition filed by Ms. Jayalalithaa and V.N. Sasikala against a Karnataka High Court order refusing to stay the trial, a vacation Bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and A.K. Sikri had on May 26 stayed the trial till June 6. The Bench had then made it clear that proceedings on claim petitions would continue before the trial court and posted the matter to June 6.
On Friday, a vacation Bench of Justices J.S. Khehar and C. Nagappan extended the stay to enable the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to file its response to the plea. Counsel L. Nageswara Rao, appearing for the accused, strongly opposed the impleadment of DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan stating that it was a political fight.
However, counsel R. Shanmugasundaram, appearing for Mr. Anbazhagan, said the case was transferred to Bangalore at his instance. He said the apex court in 2003 had described the applicant as a ‘watchdog’ and that he had the locus standi to prosecute the case when the State failed to file an appeal.
K. Ramamurthy, appearing for the DVAC, sought three weeks’ time to file response stating that he had to take instructions from special public prosecutor Bhavani Singh.
Justice Khehar, however, told counsel, “We are not going to allow you to delay the trial. File your response in one week.”
