Supreme Court Admits Petitions Against Jayalalithaa

The Supreme Court today admitted and referred to alarger Bench a bunch of five petitions raising "constitutionallyimportant" questions over the swearing in of J. Jayalalithaa as Tamil NaduChief Minister despite being barred from contesting polls due to her convictionin TANSI scam.

However, a three-judge Bench of Justice S.P. Bharucha,Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Brijesh Kumar dismissed the DMK's applicationseeking to implead itself in the matter.

Jayalalithaa on her part said that she had 'nothing more to add' to what the Supreme Court had said while former Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, said rejection of his party's petition to implead in the case was not a 'setback'.

The Court, which had on June 4 issued notices toJayalalithaa, the Union Government and the Attorney General on this issue, saidthe petitions posed "constitutionally important questions namely whether aperson, who has been convicted of a criminal offence, which has not beensuspended, can be sworn in as Chief Minister".

When counsel for the DMK general secretary, K.Anbazhagan, submitted that the party wanted to assist the Court in the case,Justice Bharucha shot back saying "We are not converting the matter intopublicity or a political affair." When three more petitioners wanted tointervene in the case, the Bench said "We are not entertaining any morepetitions" and added "we have enough".

Claiming that rejection of DMK's petition to implead itself in the case was not a setback, Karunanidhi said all the petitions had not been rejected by the apex court.

"Since there are other petitions, probably the court thought another petition from a political party is not needed. However, I can comment further only after getting more details", he said.

While referring the matterto the Constitution Bench, the Court said the matter be placed before the ChiefJustice of India for setting up of a larger Bench. The Court said the matterwould be listed for hearing in the week commencing from September 3.

It is likely that the matter will now be heard by abench comprising at least five judges.

The Court allowed Jayalalithaa four more weeks to fileher counter.

The petitions which have been admitted were filed by B.R.Kapur, Dhananjayan Chauhan, Pratap Singh Chautala and B.L. Wadhera. The Courtdismissed the petition filed by Manohar Lal Sharma as he was not present duringthe hearing today.

Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, who was requested bythe Court on June 4 to render assistance in the matter, said the questions posedby these petitions were important and needed to be expeditiously dealt with.

The Supreme Court had on June 4 also issued notice tothe Union Government, for which Solicitor General Harish Salve appeared.

Jayalalithaa, who was disqualified by the ReturningOfficers from contesting elections in view of her conviction in a corruptioncase, was appointed as the Chief Minister on May 14 after her party won amajority.

Arguing for petitioner Pratap Singh Chautala, brotherof Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, senior advocate Anil Dewan hadsubmitted that the appointment of Jayalalithaa, whose conviction had not beenstayed by the Madras High Court, has opened a new chapter in the Indian legal aswell as political history.

Terming the then Tamil Nadu Governor Fathima Beevi'sdecision as "wholly unconstitutional, arbitrary and subversive of rule oflaw forming the basic structure of Constitution", Dewan had said it wouldencourage corruption and empower a "convicted person to occupy ChiefMinister's Office".

PTI