By Sandhya Ravishankar
After 18 years of constant delays and adjournments, on September 27, 2014, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was found guilty of holding disproportionate assets worth over Rs 58 crore. Trial court Judge Cunha handed down a four-year prison term along with a fine of Rs 100 crore. Observers at the time believed that Jayalalithaa was sunk, as her appeal process would continue for at least a few years, going by the size and sheer volume of the case. That, however, was not to be.
Jayalalithaa Got Bail in Record-Time
The AIADMK chief got bail in record time, after 21 days in a Bangalore jail. Her appeals process has been placed on the fast lane, with daily hearings and almost no adjournments. And now, a related case, that of whether the Special Public Prosecutor trying her appeal, Bhavani Singh, should be removed or not – has also been fast-tracked.
In September 2014 following her conviction, Jayalalithaa’s bail petition in the Karnataka High Court was rejected. She moved the Supreme Court to grant her bail on grounds of ill health. In a rare gesture of “accommodation”, as her counsel Fali Nariman termed it, Chief Justice of India HL Dattu heard her petition on October 17, a day before the court went on Diwali vacation. Bail was granted the same day, with a few orally communicated conditions. The bail order itself though was unconditional.
The Supreme Court Bar Association President Dushyant Dave had, at the time, hit out against the apex court for this decision. “The court should have issued notices to the prosecution and heard it before granting bail in this case,” said Dave. He told The Quint that his views remain the same even now.
Nariman then asked Chief Justice Dattu to expedite Jayalalithaa’s appeal process. That too was granted – a three-month time-frame fixed by the Supreme Court for the first appeal in the Karnataka High Court to be completed. The apex court in fact even fixed the exact date for the appeal hearing to begin in the Karnataka High Court.
DMK Plea Against Jayalalithaa Also Being Heard Quickly
All went smoothly until the DMK’s Special Leave Petition to remove SPP Bhavani Singh came in for a split verdict, virtually putting the brakes on the orders reserved in Jaya’s appeal. The very next day after the split verdict, on April 16th, the apex court announced the formation of a three-judge bench to decide the Singh case. It said hearings would commence on April 21st.
“The Supreme Court has said it will fast-track corruption cases,” former Attorney General Mohan Parasaran told The Quint. “We welcome speedy trials in any criminal case,” he said while refusing to comment on whether only a privileged few manage to get such speedy justice.
In Tamil Nadu though, the speed at which the judiciary is working has raised more than a few eyebrows. It has led to mass WhatsApp forwards that ask why there has been a year-long delay in the mercy plea hearings of the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi.
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