Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeals filed by the Karnataka government and DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan challenging her acquittal in the Rs 66-crore disproportionate assets case. In her written submissions of the issues in the appeals she asserted that since Mr Anbazhagan was neither a victim nor a complainant, he has no locus standi to file the appeal. Similarly, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has no locus to file an appeal when the state is the prosecuting agency.
She said when the alleged offences under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act were committed in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka has no jurisdiction to file the appeal and only the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption in the State will have the right to file appeal. By mere transfer of the trial from Tamil Nadu to a court in Bengaluru, the state of Karnataka acts only as a prosecutor and there is no direction from the SC to Karnataka to file an appeal against the acquittal.
Listing the issues, Ms Jayalalithaa as also Ms Sasikala, Mr Sudhagaran and Ms Ilavarasi, who were also acquitted, asked whether by filing the appeal by Karnataka mounted to an interference in the internal affairs of Tamil Nadu and therefore was violative of the federal scheme as well as Articles 162 (legislative power) and 245 of the Constitution; whether TN has exclusive jurisdiction to file the appeal when, with Ms Jayalalithaa being a public servant, only the state police will have the powers to prosecute her.
