More than a year after the Supreme Court upheld the trial court order in the disproportionate assets case against former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, her close aide V.K. Sasikala and two others, the Tamil Nadu government has initiated the process of confiscation by commencing physical verification of the 68 properties spread across six districts, including Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur.
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), the prosecuting agency in the case, wrote to Collectors of the six districts in March 2017, a month after the apex court order, to take possession of the properties already attached in the 20-year-old case. But queries were raised on the provisions of law under which such action could be taken.
The trial court had ordered that all immovable properties registered in the names of Lex Property Developments Pvt. Ltd., Meadow Agro Farms Pvt. Ltd., Ramaraj Agro Mills Pvt. Ltd., Signora Business Enterprises (P) Ltd., Riverway Agro Products (P) Ltd. and Indo Doha Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which were attached in two government orders, be confiscated by the government.
Legal query
However, according to official sources, a couple of district Collectors approached the DVAC with the query whether it would be appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Revenue Recovery Act to take possession of the properties. After seeking the opinion of the Advocate General on the issue, a high-level meeting was convened to expedite the process of confiscation.
“There is no separate law to take possession of assets in such cases. The Tamil Nadu Revenue Recovery Act is the only option. In the conviction relating to the disproportionate assets case involving a senior IAS officer recently, the special court ordered confiscation of his immovable properties under the Act. Confiscation of a property means revenue to the government and the provisions under the Act can be invoked,” a senior police official who handled the case said.
Confiscation of properties in the case was a priority since the court had imposed a fine of ₹10 crore on Sasikala and her relatives Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran. “Besides paying the fine amount from the proceeds of the sale of these properties, we have to credit ₹5 crore in the account of State of Karnataka as fee for conducting the trial. No decision has been taken yet on the gold jewellery and valuables kept in the custody of the Reserve Bank of India,” the official said.
Since temporary attachment of the 68 properties had already been done, it was decided to issue a government order transferring the ownership to the State of Tamil Nadu. Being an old case, revenue officials were now in the process of making physical verification of the properties. Once the process of verification was completed, the government would issue orders to take possession of all the properties and report compliance to the trial court, the sources added.
