Sunday, Aug 18, 2002
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Tamil Nadu
By J. Venkatesan
On January 22, the apex court, while granting leave to Mr. Bharathi to file the appeal against the High Court judgment dated December 4, also gave him the liberty to file an application and mention (before the Chief Justice of India) for early listing and hearing of the appeals. On April 26, on an application from Mr. Bharathi, the court directed the listing of the appeals for final hearing after the summer vacation. According to Mr. Bharathi, the criminal appeals raised substantial questions of law of national and general public importance as to whether a Chief Minister could purchase a property belonging to the State Government of which he/she was the head; whether the High Court was right in holding that the TANSI land was not a government property and that the `code of conduct' for Ministers did not have the force of law. He also said that this was an extraordinary case wherein a former and present Chief Minister had been convicted for the first time and later acquitted by the High Court. The High Court had adopted an erroneous approach in interpreting the law as well as the appreciation of evidence contrary to the principles laid down by the apex court, he claimed. He cited a Supreme Court judgment in K.C. Sareen vs CBI case in which the court had observed that "proliferation of corrupt public servants could garner momentum to cripple the social order if such men are allowed to continue to manage and operate public institutions.'' The judgment further said "the mere fact that an appellate or revisional forum has decided to entertain his challenge (against the acquittal) and to go into the issues and findings made against such public servants once again should not even temporarily absolve him from such findings.'' In one of the two TANSI cases, the trial court awarded Ms. Jayalalithaa three years imprisonment and in the other, two years. She could not contest the general elections in May last, though she filed her nomination in four constituencies. However, she became the Chief Minister and due to the apex court's intervention, was unseated in September. After arguments began in the appeals on August 27 last in the High Court before Justice R. Balasubramaniam, the Special Prosecutor, K. V. Venkatapathi, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the transfer of the appeals to another High Court. And on September 7, the Supreme Court disposed of the transfer petition by directing that the appeals be heard afresh from October 1 by another judge. Accordingly, the High Court nominated Justice N. Dinakar, who by his judgment on December 4 acquitted Ms. Jayalalithaa and others.
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