Jayalalithaa’s lawyers ready to move to the Supreme Court

As the Karnataka High Court has rejected the bail plea and suspension of sentence given by the special court in the disproportionate assets case, the lawyers of Jayalalithaa are ready to move to the apex court for the same in next few days.

The High Court had also rejected similar pleas of the other accused  in the cases of – V.K. Sasikala, V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Elavarasi.

In rejecting its bail  plea, the High Court has cited in its 46 pages order, judicial precedents from the Supreme Court to reason that the mere fact that the accused were on bail and did not misuse their liberty does not per se warrant suspension of execution of their sentence and grant of bail to them.

The Court rejected the arguments of senior advocate Ram Jethmalani regarding Ms Jayalalithaa’s entitlement for bail and said that the High Court observed that the trial court had already judicially assessed the evidence against the accused, and the resultant conviction certainly acted as a disqualification.

Further, it said that the decision to suspend the execution of sentence under Section 389 Cr.PC rested entirely on the discretion of the Appellate Court. The High Court said the relief under the provision could not be equated to grant of bail during the pre-trial stage.

The word ‘may’ used in Section 389 Cr.PC does not say that it is an absolute right of the accused to seek suspension of sentence,” the High Court order read.