SC refuses relief for Ajay Chautala in teachers scam for now

The Supreme Court on Friday declined any instant relief to INLD leader Ajay Chautala, who along with his father and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, is undergoing a 10-year sentence in the teacher recruitment scam, and has challenged the Delhi High Court order upholding his conviction and sentence.

While Chautala did not get any relief but the hour-long hearing saw fortunes taking twist and turns for him.

Hearing Chautala's plea, a bench of Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh first said that it was not inclined to interfere with the high court order which was read as rejection of Chautala's plea.

However, in the course of the hearing of pleas by the other convicts including Krishna Gupta, Abhilash Kaur, Rakesh Jindal and Sudha Sachdeva, senior counsel Gopal Subramanium appearing for Chautala told the court that there was material on record that needs to be gone into before petitions are decided.

At this stage, the court said that it was not inclined to interfere with the high court verdict for now, thereby leaving the room open for the petition being heard at length on merits when court opens after summer break and also takes for hearing of the petition by Om Prakash Chautala who too has moved the apex court against the high court order.

"We are not inclined to entertain your appeal at this stage. Sorry we cannot interfere in the judgement at this stage," the court told Subramanium sending a wave of relief in the battery of lawyers who had appeared for the INLD leader.

A visibly relieved Subramanium told the court that this "is reason that I have full faith in the lordships (judges)".

However, on Ajay Chautala's plea for being released on parole for his treatment, the court asked him to make a specific application seeking relief for the medical assistance he required.

The Delhi High Court, while upholding the jail term of Chautalas, had on March 5 said that they "deserved punishment of the highest kinda as they had cheated the youth of Haryana".

The Chautalas and 55 others including two IAS officers were convicted on January 16, 2013 by a Delhi court for illegally recruiting 3,206 JBTs in Haryana in 2000 when the elder Chautala was the chief minister.