SC rejects Jayalalithaa’s niece’s plea, seized assets to remain with govt

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by J Deepa, the niece of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, seeking the release of the latter's properties that were seized by authorities in connection with a disproportionate assets case from 2004.

A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and S C Sharma upheld the Karnataka High Court's previous ruling, which had rejected Deepa’s plea. The Supreme Court declined to intervene in the matter, thereby allowing the confiscation of Jayalalithaa’s properties to remain in place.

The Karnataka High Court had earlier ruled that the confiscation of Jayalalithaa’s properties was legally justified. Justice V. Srishananda of the Karnataka HC had stated:

“In the event of prosecuting agency further proceeding with confiscation proceedings in auctioning the properties, which may contain the assets which were possessed and seized by the prosecuting agency prior to check period, if established by the appellants by process known to law, appellants would be entitled to the value thereof.”

Earlier, the Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, H A Mohan, had also dismissed the petition filed by J Deepa and J Deepak, stating:

“All properties were acquired by illegal means and accordingly, ordered to be confiscated. Therefore, the properties shall go to the government only and not in favour of petitioners.”

Petitioners argue legal heirship

Deepa and Deepak, who claim to be the legal heirs of Jayalalithaa, argued that they were entitled to inherit her estate. They contended that since Jayalalithaa had passed away before the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case, the order of abatement effectively served as a clean chit to her.

However, the court rejected this argument, clarifying that the Supreme Court's abatement order only applied to the punishment aspect of the case and did not affect the confiscation of properties. The court ruled that despite being legal heirs, they were not entitled to the seized properties.

Background of the disproportionate assets case

The Supreme Court had in 2017 convicted V K Sasikala, Jayalalithaa’s close aide and then AIADMK General Secretary, in the disproportionate assets case. The ruling overturned the Karnataka High Court’s earlier acquittal of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.

On September 27, 2014, a special court in Bengaluru sentenced Jayalalithaa to four years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs100 crore. However, she passed away in December 2016 before the case reached its final legal conclusion.

IANS