Dismiss Jaya plea against 4-year jail: New SPP to HC

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa

A newly appointed special public prosecutor in the illegal assets case against former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday sought the dismissal of an appeal, filed by her against the four-year prison sentence, for not making the Karnataka government, the prosecuting agency, a party in the petition before the High Court.

“Omission to implead the state of Karnataka as a party is a fatal defect and as the defect has not been cured even subsequently aforesaid appeals are liable to be dismissed in limine (‘at the threshold’, referring to a motion before a trial begins) as not maintainable,” senior advocate B V Acharya, appointed by the Karnataka government as the SPP on Tuesday, stated in written arguments before the Karnataka High Court.

Acharya, 81, who was the original prosecutor in the case, was re-appointed SPP in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling that the appointment of advocate Bhavani Singh by the Tamil Nadu government was bad in law.

The new SPP told the High Court that the entire proceedings in the appeals filed by Jayalalithaa and her three associates were “vitiated for the simple reason that there was no public prosecutor appointed by the state of Karnataka who has appeared in the case”. He referred to the apex court ruling that the state government “is the sole prosecuting agency”.

Source:: Indian Express