Supreme Court suspends sentence of cine actor Jayaprada

The Supreme Court recently suspended the sentence of cine actress Jayaprada in connection with the case filed against her for a failure to pay contributions to the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) [Jayapradha Cine Theatre vs Employees State Insurance Corporation]..A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan granted her interim bail while an appeal against her conviction is pending before a sessions court. "The appellants (Jayaprada and a theatre in which she has a stake) have deposited a sum of Rs. 9,80,000/-. Considering the fact that substantive appeals against the orders of conviction are pending, the second appellant (Jayaprada) is entitled to relief of suspension of sentence and bail pending the disposal of the appeals", the bench reasoned in its March 15 order..By way of background, Jayaprada and her brothers Ramkumar and Raj Babu were partners of Jayapradha Cine Theatre, which went defunct around ten years ago.The ESIC has alleged that the management of the now defunct cinema theatre had been deducting ESI amounts from the dues payable to theatre workers but had not been paying these amounts to the State Insurance Corporation.In August last year, a Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Chennai sentenced Jayaprada to six months in prison on a complaint by the ESIC.An amount of ₹37.68 lakh was said to be outstanding..After the Magistrate convicted her, she approached the Madras High Court challenging the trial court order.The High Court rejected her plea for suspension of sentence on October 20, 2023 and said that the actress and the other accused could apply for bail or suspension of sentence before the courts below only after surrendering and depositing ₹20 lakhs each.Jayaprada then approached the Supreme Court for relief..The Supreme Court had in November granted the cine actor and former Parliamentarian exemption from surrendering before the authorities, which has now been extended till completion of bail formalities within a month."During the pendency of the appeals before the Sessions Court, the substantive sentence of the second appellant shall stand suspended and she shall be enlarged on bail, pending final disposal of the appeals", the top court added in its order. .On these terms, the appeals filed by Jayaprada and Jayaprada Cine Theatre have now been allowed. Jayaprada was represented by Senior Advocate Sonia Mathur and advocates Nachiketa Vajpayee, Praveen Arya and Divyangna Malik, briefed by a team from Lawfic.Advocates Manish Kumar Saran and Ananya Tyagi appeared for the ESIC..[Read order]