Jaya case: HC allows Swamy's plea partially; rejects

Karnataka High Court today partially accepted BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's application seeking permission to implead himself in AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa's appeal against her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.
The court, however, dismissed DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan's prayer to intervene as party respondent to assist the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the case.
Passing orders on their applications, Justice C R Kumaraswamy of the special bench, denied permission to Swamy to present his arguments in the proceedings in the case, but allowed him to assist SPP Bhavani Singh since he (Swamy) was the original complainant in the case.
The Special Bench has been set up on the direction of the Supreme Court which had said on December 18 last that Jayalalithaa's plea challenging her conviction in the disproportionate assets case be decided within three months.

Justice Kumaraswamy also ordered that the court will decide
on Swamy's prayer that he be allowed to make written submissions after the completion of the arguments.

Swamy, who was the first to move a Chennai court against Jayalalithaa accusing her of amassing disproportionate wealth, had filed the application on January 24.
He had submitted that he was the original complainant and should be allowed to implead in the case under the provisions of Section 5(3) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Dismissing the prayer of Anbazhagan, on whose plea the Supreme Court had transferred the disproportionate assets case from a court in Tamil Nadu to here, Justice Kumaraswamy said Anbazhagan has no legal expertise to present arguments, and his intervention amounts to political interference.

Anbazhagan had submitted that he had intervened before the appropriate courts at all stages of the trial "to ensure that justice is not derailed by powerful persons" who were tried for serious corruption charges.
A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, had ordered that the hearing in the High Court on the appeal filed by Jayalalithaa challenging her conviction and sentence in the case, be conducted on a day-to-day basis.
The AIADMK leader was sent to jail by a trial court on September 27 last year. On October 17, the apex court had granted conditional bail to Jayalalithaa, saying that hearing on her appeal against conviction in the High Court should be completed in three months.

The special court had held Jayalalithaa and three others guilty of corruption. The court had awarded four years jail term and also slapped a fine of Rs 100 crore on the AIADMK chief. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10 crore on each of the three others.