A ‘court’ship of two decades: The lawyers and judges involved in the Jayalalithaa DA Case

J Jayalalithaa’s transformation from silver screen star to larger than life political leader was almost the stuff of fiction. However, the status did not come without a fair share of legal controversies. The AIADMK leader’s prosecution in the disproportionate assets case was marked by many twists and turns over the years, eventually culminating in the Supreme Court of India reserving its verdict in the case in June this year..What follows below is a look back at some of the key players in the case that hounded the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for almost two decades..1. Subramanian Swamy.The man who started it all. The BJP leader pursued the case with a vengeance for almost two decades, having appeared in-person at several stages of the trial, and opposing the bail plea in the Apex Court..Swamy was the man who first set things into motion by filing the FIR against Jayalalithaa before the Principal Sessions Judge, Madras..2. BV Acharya.The Senior Advocate was the first special public prosecutor in the case. He argued the matter before the trial court for almost 7 years, following which he decided to step down, citing pressure from various quarters..Argued the case before the Apex Court, the verdict of which was reserved in June 2016..3. Justice John Michael D’Cunha.The then Special Court judge, appointed by the Supreme Court of India, convicted and jailed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 for holding disproportionate assets..Just last month, he was appointed as a judge of the Karnataka High Court..The sensational verdict had resulted in Jayalalithaa losing the Chief Minister’s post, as she was disqualified under the Representation of the People Act from contesting elections for a period of ten years: four years from the date of conviction and six years thereafter. However, the verdict was not upheld by the High Court..4. Fali S Nariman.The noted jurist was roped in to secure bail for the AIADMK Supremo in the Supreme Court after supplying an oral undertaking to submit the paper book pertaining to the appeal filed in the Karnataka High Court within two months..Another illustrious name, Ram Jethmalani was unable to convince the Karnataka High court to do the same, despite the fact that the Special Public Prosecutor Bhavani Singh did not object to a grant of conditional bail..5. Justice HL Dattu.The former Chief Justice of India heard Jayalalithaa’s petition in the Supreme Court against the rejection of her bail plea by the Karnataka High Court in the DA case, along with Justices Madan B Lokur and AK Sikri..Granted bail to Jayalalithaa without hearing the prosecution, thereby beginning a domino effect of sorts of allegations against his fairness..6. Justice CR Kumaraswamy.The judge that acquitted Jayalalithaa of all charges in the Disproportionate Assets case found himself in the eye of the storm after whispers of mathematical errors in his judgment started doing the rounds. Though there were no legal repercussions for him, Subramanian Swamy called the judgment a ‘tragedy of arithmetic errors’..7. B Kumar, S Senthil & ors..Senior counsel B Kumar and advocate S Senthil led a contingent of 25 lawyers from Tamil Nadu defending Amma from the get go. They were instrumental in assisting the well-known names in securing bail for the state CM, and played a role in getting an acquittal from the Karnataka High Court..8. Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy.Heard the appeal against the High Court Judgment delivered by Kumaraswamy J, and reserved the verdict this June. Though the AIADMK supremo is no more, her aides involved in the case still await the final outcome in the case..9. Senior Advocate L Nageswara Rao.Now a Supreme Court judge, the then senior counsel Nageswara Rao appeared for Jayalalithaa as defence counsel in the Apex Court and objected to the maintainability of the appeals filed by the DMK and Swamy, arguing that they had no locus standi..Image from here.