The Bench and the Bar

SEBI has banned real estate giant DLF and six managers from the capital markets for three years after a finding of fraud.

The Bombay high court has served a show cause contempt notice on the Mumbai Mirror for reporting a litigant’s allegation made in court earlier this year that a judge hearing was corrupt.

The Supreme Court will Friday hear the bail plea of AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, who is at present in a Bangalore jail after her conviction in a corruption case.

The former Tamil Nadu chief minister was sentenced to four years in prison and a Rs.100 crore fine.

A bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said the matter would be heard Friday as senior counsel Fali Nariman mentioned her matter for listing and an early hearing.

Jayalalithaa moved the apex court Oct 9 after the Karnataka high court Oct 7 turned down her bail plea, as well as of other convicts Sasikala Natrajan, VK Sudhakaran and J Ilavarasi. The court held that there were no grounds for granting them bail.

Besides health grounds, Jayalalithaa invoked Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking the suspension of her sentence and grant of bail till the pendency of her appeal against the trial court order convicting and sentencing her in the case.

The high court had relied on apex court orders as it ruled that putting the sentence on hold after an appeal is filed against the trial court order was not automatic. It said the plea for bail after the conviction was different from the plea for bail while the trial was on.

It also cited the apex court ruling that “corruption amounts to violation of human rights and leads to economic imbalances”.

A trial court in Bangalore Sep 27 convicted Jayalalithaa in the 18-year-old case for possessing assets disproportionate to her known sources of income.

The case related to period from 1991 to 1996 involving Rs.66.65 crore when she became chief minister for the first time.

The Bombay high court has ordered costs of Rs 40 lakh against 10 petitioners who filed a property matter that Justice Gautam Patel called a “sponsored” petition “without the faintest glimmer of merit. It is precisely the kind of litigation -- speculative, lacking in bonafides, sponsored, an abuse of process of law and of the court and perhaps even a fraud on the court -- that our Supreme Court has repeatedly decried and deprecated, even said should be visited with exemplary and penal costs".

The costs were to be paid to the respondent developer, who claimed that they had to spend significant costs defending themselves against the action, reported the PTI, though the court nevertheless intermittently stayed the development of land the petitioners had challenged so they could launch an appeal.

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, currently lodged in Bangalore jail following her conviction in a disproportionate assets case, today moved the Supreme Court seeking bail on several grounds including her ill health.

Jayalalithaa, along with her aide Sasikala Natrajan, VK Sudhakaran and J Ilavarasi, were Tuesday refused bail by the Karnataka high court which held that there were no grounds for granting bail.

Jayalalithaa alone moved the apex court for the grant of bail. The other three would be filing their appeals in a day or two.

Besides her health grounds, Jayalalithaa has invoked section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking the suspension of her sentence and grant of bail till the pendency of her appeal against the trial court order convicting her in the case and sentencing her to a four-year jail term and a fine of Rs.100 crore.

The high court Oct 7, while declining bail to Jayalalithaa and three others, had relied on apex court orders as it ruled that putting the sentence on hold after an appeal is filed against the trial court order was not automatic. It had said that plea for bail after the conviction was different from the plea for bail while the trial was on.

It had also cited the apex court ruling that “corruption amounts to violation of human rights and leads to economic imbalances”.