SC surprised on listing of plea of DMK leader in assets case

Supreme Court today expressed surprise over the listing of hearing on a DMK leader's plea seeking removal of the public prosecutor and staying of Karnataka High Court proceedings on the appeal of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case.
The plea was last taken up for hearing on March 24 and the court had then deferred it to March 26. However, it featured again in today's list of business.
"We are also taken by surprise as we got to know that the same combination (of judges) is sitting today as well," a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and R K Agrawal said and deferred the plea for hearing tomorrow.

Earlier, the court had issued notice to the AIADMK chief and other convicts - close aide Sasikala, two of her relatives and Karnataka government on the plea of DMK leader K Anbazhagan.
He had sought removal of public prosecutor Bhawani Singh, raising questions about his impartiality as prosecutor in the case and staying of appeal proceedings before the Karnataka High Court in the case.
The court, however, had refused to stay the appeal proceedings before the Karnataka High Court and said that it would rather finally dispose of the petition.

The apex court had in last December extended by four months the bail of Jayalalithaa and asked the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court to constitute a special bench to decide her plea expeditiously within three months.

On October 17, the apex court had granted conditional bail to Jayalalithaa who was sent to jail by a trial court on September 27.
The 66-year-old politician, who had moved the Supreme Court for bail on October 9 after she was denied it by the Karnataka High Court, had submitted that she had been sentenced to only four years jail and was suffering from various ailments, as grounds for immediate relief.
The Special Court had held Jayalalithaa and three others guilty of corruption. The court had also slapped a fine of Rs 100 crore on the AIADMK chief and Rs 10 crore fine on each of the three other convicts.