The Supreme Court has extended the bail granted to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and four other accused till the Karnataka High Court disposes off their appeals against conviction in a disproportionate assets case.
This means that the High Court will have to wait till a newly-formed three-judge bench of the Supreme Court first gives a final decision on the question whether the entire appeal proceedings held in the past three months was vitiated due to the presence of Special Public Prosecutor Bhavani Singh.
The three judge bench was formed by the Supreme Court earlier after a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and R. Banumathi delivered a split verdict on DMK leader K. Anbazhagan's plea to remove Singh.
Justice Lokur held Singh had no authority to appear as prosecutor and the appeal proceedings were vitiated. Justice Lokur held that the appeals have to be heard afresh. But Justice Banumathi had differed, holding that the appeal proceedings were in the right as Singh did have authority.
Now, it is up to the three-judge bench to decide on whether it should agree with Justice Lokur or Justice Banumathi. The hearing on this reference is scheduled to start on April 21, 2015.
Hearing the plea by accused persons for extension of bail, a bench led by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu agreed to the Karnataka High Court's plea for more time to dispose the appeals. The bench gave time till May 12, 2015.
So, if the three-judge bench agrees with Justice Banumathi that Singh had authority, the judgment on the appeal, which is already reserved, can be given soon, possibly by May 12.
On the other hand, if the three judge bench agrees with Justice Lokur, the entire appeals would have to be re-heard, and this would take another three to four months. In such a case, the CJI has given the high court liberty to approach the Supreme Court again for more time.
Friday's hearing comes after the apex court's extension of bail of Jayalalithaa and the other three accused in the case - Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran - till April 18, 2015.
It had paved the way for a speedy hearing of their appeals against conviction in the disproportionate assets case by asking the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice to constitute a Special Bench to "exclusively" hear the case on a day-to-day basis and complete it in three months.
Chief Justice Dattu had decided on this "keeping in view the peculiar circumstances" of the case.
The Chief Justice had even orally observed that in case the appeal proceedings are not completed in three months, the apex court could be duly informed and an extension of 15 days could be considered.
The four accused were granted bail first on October 17 on the condition that their appeal papers are duly filed before the Karnataka High Court by December 18 as a step to ensure there is no delay in appeal process.
