Rs 100 crore fine from Amma cannot be recovered: Supreme Court

Rejecting Karnataka's request, the Supreme Court (SC) said that former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa would not be declared a convict in a corruption case.

"Applications for personal hearing of review petitions before the court are rejected. We have considered the review petitions filed by the State of Karnataka on merits. In our opinion, no case for review of our order dated February 14, 2017 is made out. Consequently, the review petitions are dismissed on merits," a bench of Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy said.

This means that the Rs 100 crore fine imposed by a trial court after Jayalalithaa was convicted cannot be recovered from her estate.

The Karnataka government on March 21 had moved an application in the SC challenging the abatement accorded to recently deceased Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case.

On February 14, 2017, the apex court bench led by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose upheld the trial court judgment that held Jayalalithaa guilty of amassing wealth beyond her known source of income. Sasikala and her relatives VN Sudhakaran and Elavarasi were also convicted for criminal conspiracy and abetting Jayalalithaa.

The apex court found incriminating evidence against Jayalalithaa, though abated proceedings against her because of her death on December 5, 2016. Had she been alive, even Jayalalithaa would have been held guilty, the court said.

In its petition, Karnataka sought the modification of the SC judgement submitting that the apex court's finding that the charges against Jayalalithaa stood abated were "error on the face of the record" and merited a "relook."

"Even though the question of A1 (Jayalalithaa) undergoing further imprisonment does not arise, sentence to pay fine (Rs 100 crore) is legally sustainable which has to be recovered from the estate," the review petition read. "This is particularly so, where the offence alleged is of illegally acquiring disproportionate asset. Therefore, the finding that the appeal has abated is not correct."

Simply put, Karnataka said, that though the plea for jail was "infructuous," the fine imposed could still be recovered.

The petition also read, "There are no provisions either in the Constitution or in the Supreme Court rules, 2013 for such abatement of appeal. On the other hand, the Supreme Court rules, 2013, provide that both in case of civil appeals as well as election petitions there will be no abatement if the death takes place after conclusion of hearing."

The top court in its 570-page February judgment had observed that this case demonstrated "a deep rooted conspiratorial design to amass vast assets without any compunction and hold the same through shell entities to cover the sinister trail of such illicit acquisitions and deceive and delude the process of law."

The strongly worded observations by the bench remarked that the greed of the accused politicians was outrageous and startling. Finding the corruption so rampant, it seems that every citizen will just have to "reconcile to the octopoid stranglehold of this malaise with helpless awe."

The case

In 1996, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy had filed the first complaint against Jayalalithaa alleging corruption. Swamy, who waited 21 years for validation of his accusations tweeted: "After 20 years I won. Now turn of TDK Buddhu PC BC & Tata to join in jail." Speaking to the media after the verdict, he said, "I am gratified by the extra note by Justice Roy in placing that corruption is a menace to the society."

The prosecution proved that Jayalalithaa and her aides floated various companies amassing property worth Rs 66,65,20,395, which was grossly disproportionate to the known sources of income of during the check period from July, 1991 to April, 1996. It was assessed that Jaya and her coterie earned a total of Rs 9,34,26,054 through all sources of income, while Jaya spent Rs 11,56,56,833 during the same period.