BackJayalalithaa to move Karnataka high court for bail
Lawyers are also finalising a strategy for seeking a stay on her conviction and sentence in the disproportionate assets case
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Chennai: J. Jayalalithaa, the jailed chief of Tamil Nadu’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party, will move the Karnataka high court on Monday for bail while the ruling party finalises its strategy for seeking a stay on her conviction and sentence in the disproportionate assets case.
“We will be filing a bail application in the Karnataka high court tomorrow," B. Kumar, senior counsel for the 66-year-old leader, said a day after a special court in Karnataka sentenced her to four years in jail that immediately disqualified her from being a member of the legislative assembly (MLA).
However, the matter may be taken up only on Tuesday when there is a scheduled hearing by a vacation bench because the high court will be on vacation from 29 September to 6 October for Dussehra.
Lawyers were putting the final touches to their legal strategy to seek immediate relief for Jayalalithaa, who was convicted by special judge John Michael D’Cunha and sentenced to four years in prison in the ₹ 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case.
Since she has been sentenced to a period of more than three years, only the high court can grant bail in Jayalalithaa’s case.
Kumar said a team of lawyers were holding discussions on filing a petition seeking a stay of the conviction and the sentence awarded to Jayalalithaa in the 18-year-old case.
The criminal revision petition is one of the options before the lawyers.
A stay on the conviction would nullify Jayalalithaa’s disqualification as an MLA.
Unless the conviction is overturned by a higher court, Jayalalithaa runs the risk of being barred from contesting elections for 10 years—four years while she is in jail and six after release. Under a Supreme Court judgement in 2013, any MLA or MP (member of Parliament) would stand automatically disqualified if he or she is convicted and imprisoned for two years or more.
Before this judgement, Section 8(4) of the Representation of People Act, which was stuck down by the Supreme Court, protected an elected representative from disqualification if they appealed before a higher court within three months.
In its judgement delivered on Saturday the special court also imposed a staggering fine of ₹ 100 crore on Jayalalithaa and found three others guilty—Jayalalithaa’s close associate Sasikala her relatives V.N. Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi. They were handed a four-year jail term and fined ₹ 10 crore each.
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