May 11: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa challenging the very process of investigation in the disproportionate assets case against her, currently under trial in a special court in Bengaluru.
A bench of Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar refused to entertain the petition directly in the top court bypassing the Karnataka high court.
Ms J. Jayalalithaa’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi said that the former chief minister was “constrained to move the top court directly without approaching the high court in the light of the bar under Section 19(1) (c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act”.
However, the bench said that such bar would not apply in this case and gave her the liberty to approach the Karnataka high court.
Following this, Mr Rohtagi offered to withdraw the petition and the bench declared it as “dismissed as withdrawn”.
Ms Jayalalithaa in her petition had raised certain issues relating to registration of the FIR on September 18, 1996 and subsequent investigation methods adopted by the Tamil Nadu government.