DA case- Jayalalithaa's counsel to begin arguments tomorrow

Bengaluru, April 4: Senior counsel Nageshwar Rao will commence arguments on behalf of Tamil Nadu chief minister, J Jayalalithaa tomorrow in the Supreme Court.

The last leg of the hearing on the appeal in the Supreme Court would commence tomorrow and conclude with Karnataka filing its reply.

Rao is expected to argue for at least 3 days before the Bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy.

During his submissions, he would demonstrate before the Bench why the order of the Karnataka High Court which had acquitted his client and three others was right.

Reply to Karnataka:

Rao's arguments before the Bench would focus more on how the trial court was wrong in convicting Jayalalithaa and three others.

He would also make counter submissions to what Karnataka had told the Supreme Court. He would also file a point to point counter to what Karnataka had argued while seeking a reversal of the High Court order.

It is however still not clear if Rao would bring up the issue of locus standi before the Supreme Court. After Karnataka had filed the appeal, Jayalalithaa had questioned the state's right in filing the appeal.

Karnataka however contended that it was the prosecuting agency and only it had the right to go in appeal before the Supreme Court.

Karnataka also does not expect much time to be spent on the petition filed by an advocate questioning the locus standi of either the Supreme Court or the High Court in hearing this case.

The officer said that if this was to be taken up seriously then it would have been taken up first. There is no point in hearing all the parties and then deciding on the locus standi of the court.

If the Bench had been convinced about this point then they would have taken up that case first instead allowing all the parties to argue, the officer also informed.