Accepting fervent pleas from senior advocate Fali S Nariman, a bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu, Justices Madan B Lokur and A K Sikri stayed the trial court order awarding four years jail to Jayalalithaa and co-convicts Sasikala and Sudhakaran and ordered their release on bail on furnishing two sureties to the satisfaction of the trial judge in Bangalore.
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All three have been in jail since September 27, the day the trial court convicted and sentenced them.
The SC bench expressed serious displeasure on two counts: One, on the way Jayalalithaa had adopted dilatory tactics to stretch the trial proceedings to 18 years and, two, the way AIADMK members launched an offensive against the trial court judge for convicting her and the HC judge for denying her bail.
AIADMK supporters celebrate the Supreme Court's decision to grant bail to their party leader Jayalalithaa. (AFP Photo)
"The trial was delayed only because of you (Jayalalithaa)," the bench told Nariman and initially sought an affidavit from Jayalalithaa giving an undertaking that she would complete all paper work to make her appeal ready for hearing by the high court in six weeks.
It did not insist on the affidavit after Nariman assured that the deadline would be scrupulously followed. "If the six-week period is breached, she will face the consequence," he said, adding, "This is not the game. It may have been the game before."
The bench said, "Should we not take into account the petitioner's conduct in the Supreme Court, the high court and the trial court in dragging the proceedings for days, months and years?"
READ ALSO: Jayalalithaa asks her supporters to maintain law and order in Tamil Nadu
The bench followed it with a warning about cancellation of her bail. "We will call the case after two months. If the paper work is not completed by her by December 18 (the next date of hearing in the Supreme Court) to make her appeal ready for hearing by the HC, then do not expect even a single day's relaxation from us. She will have to go back to jail," it said.
Complainant Subramanian Swamy narrated the vandalism of AIADMK members in the absence of a clear direction from party chief Jayalalithaa. He said he was threatened by party members, who also made derogatory caricature of the trial judge for convicting her and the HC judge for denying her bail while accusing them of being unreasonable because they were 'Kannadigas'.
The CJI said, "If people say those judges are Kannadigas, then I am also a Kannadiga. We are not concerned with what people say. We go by our judicial conscience."
But the court again warned, "You (Jayalalithaa) must advise your party members to exercise restraint. If they indulge in vandalism or unfair criticism of the judges, then we will not entertain any more applications from you."
READ ALSO: Jayalalithaa to spend another night in Bangalore jail
The tension during arguments was palpable despite the silence maintained by lawyers from Tamil Nadu thronging the CJI's court room. But there were light moments too.
While arguing for bail, Nariman covered all possible grounds, from apex court judgments favouring Jayalalithaa's release on bail during pendency of appeal in the HC to her illness. He also suggested that she could be kept under house arrest. But the bench said, "We will not pass an unusual order confining her to four walls of her house. Either you get bail or you don't."
AIADMK workers in celebration at the party office in Madurai. (PTI Photo) Nariman said she would not flee the law. "It is impossible for her to flee the law. She is larger than life, both literally and physically. She cannot run away," he said, drawing guffaws from lawyers.
During the arguments, Swamy was itching to present his views to the court. Nariman, in a lighter vein, told the court that Swamy should also be heard but the bench should not accept what he says.
Swamy returned the compliment when his turn came. "I will not say a word. Nariman is my guru. But I wish he had not become the Bhishma Pitamah of Mahabharata and stood for the opposite party."
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