Appeal against Jayalalithaa’s acquittal: SC issues notices; refuses to stay HC order

A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice P.C. Ghose on Monday issued a notice to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on a batch of petitions challenging her acquittal in the disproportionate assets case. The Court however refused to stay the High Court order.

The Karnataka Government had, in the petition, said that Ms. Jayalalithaa's acquittal by the state High Court was a "farce." The Petitioners contended that the High Court had committed a mathematical error while calculating her income from her various ventures including agricultural income and the loan taken by her from nationalized banks.

It claimed that if the calculation is undertaken without any errors, then the percentage of her disproportionate assets would be 34.50%, which was erroneously fixed at 8.12% by the court.

The High Court had held that Ms. Jayalalithaa’s disproportionate assets was around Rs2.82 crore against the prosecution claim of Rs 66.5 crore and acquitted her on the ground that it was less than 10 percent of the income and the offence was not made out.

The petition says, "The HC has reversed the judgment and order of the trial court on untenable grounds, ignoring the material and clinching evidence which proved the case of the prosecution. The HC has chosen to reverse the judgment for no valid reasons at all.”

"It is respectfully submitted that the conclusions reached by the judge are not based on proper appreciation of evidence and the conclusions reached are bordering on perversity and is, therefore, liable to be set aside. The judgment lacks reasoning, is not logical and is cryptic. The evidence has not been considered objectively and lacks deliberation," it added.

Ms. Jayalalithaa returned to office as Chief Minister in May after she was acquitted.

Earlier in May, Ms. Jayalalithaa and three of her associates were acquitted in the Disproportionate Assets case by a single judge of the Karnataka High Court. Read the LiveLaw story here.

The Trial Court had convicted and sentenced Jayalalithaa and her 3 associates to four years in prison besides imposing a Rs 100 crore fine, on September 27 last year.

Read more news about Jayalalithaa DA Case here.