PIL against Sasikala not listed for hearing in SC

The PIL moved in the Supreme Court seeking to restrain AIADMK leader V K Sasikala from being sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister could not be listed for hearing today as certain "defects" in it need to be cured.
Sources said the petitioner has now engaged a lawyer and efforts were on to cure the defects cited by the court registry.
The petition filed by Chennai-resident Senthil Kumar, General Secretary of NGO Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, is not there in the mentioning list for tomorrow and there is all likelihood that his advocate would make a mention of it before an appropriate bench for urgent hearing tomorrow.

The petition was hurriedly filed yesterday seeking a stay on swearing-in of Sasikala as Tamil Nadu chief minister as there was speculation that she would be taking the oath today itself.
The petitioner has sought a restrain on her swearing-in after a bench had yesterday said that it would pronounce within a week the judgement in a 19-year-old disproportionate assets case in which she and late CM J Jayalalithaa were accused.
Kumar sought a stay on Sasikala's swearing-in contending that if she was convicted and forced to resign, there could be a "possibility of riots erupting all over Tamil Nadu".

He said the law and order situation may worsen in such an eventuality as the state was already facing a "desperate situation" due to cyclone, demonetisation and death of Jayalalithaa.

The petitioner claimed in case the appeal against her acquittal results in conviction, the AIADMK workers may once again protest and disturb the normal life in Tamil Nadu.
He said he filed the plea in the interest of the people of Tamil Nadu and to maintain peace in the state.
(Reopens LGD45)
Jayalalitha, along with her aides Sasikala, V N Sudhakaran and J Elavarasi were booked under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income in 1997.

The trial of the case was shifted by the Supreme Court to Bengaluru on a petition filed by a DMK leader and the court there had convicted them on September 27, 2014.
However, the Karnataka High Court had reversed the special court's judgment on May 11, 2015.
The Karnataka government had filed an appeal against it in the Supreme Court.
The apex court had last year, before the demise of Jayalalithaa, reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the Karnataka HC order.