Battery of Seniors as Jaya battle to play out soon in SC

A battery of Senior Advocates appeared for different parties today in the appeal against the judgment of the Karnataka High Court acquitting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case..While Senior Advocate L Nageswara Rao appeared for Jayalalithaa, the Karnataka government was represented by Senior Advocate and SCBA President Dushyant Dave. Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram appeared for six companies whose properties were attached pursuant to an order of 1997 on the ground that Jayalalithaa had stake in them. Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appeared for DMK leader K Anbazhagan..It is also learnt that Senior Senior Advocate Fali Nariman will appear for Jaya while TR Andhyarujina will represent K Anbhazagan..When the matter came up for hearing today as item 71 in court 11, Dushyant Dave representing Karnataka government sought time for parties to complete pleadings and urged the court to list the matter in February 2016. The Division Bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and RK Agarwal, however, granted the parties six weeks time to complete the pleadings and listed the case for November 23. On the said date, the Court will decide on when to commence the final hearing in the case..It is interesting to note that the Karnataka government was initially undecided on whether to appeal against the judgment or not since it was not arraigned as respondent in the appeal filed by Jayalalithaa before the Karnataka High Court against the judgment of Special Judge Michael Cunha. Special Public Prosecutor Bhavani Singh had conducted the prosecution before the High Court pursuant to his appointment by the Tamil Nadu government. This had been challenged in the Supreme Court which had held Singh’s appointment as invalid. However, it did not mandate a fresh hearing of the appeal whereupon the High Court heard out the case and acquitted Jaya..DMK leader K Anbazhagan had immediately sprung to action and challenged the correctness of the judgment in the Supreme Court. Subsequently, Karnataka government had moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court decision – one of its main grounds being that it was not heard in the appeal before the High Court.