J Jayalalithaa's DA case: Supreme Court verdict on appointment of SPP on April 27

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will pronounce on Monday its decision on the issue of legality of appointment of advocate Bhawani Singh as special public prosecutor(SPP) to argue before Karnataka High Court against the appeal filed by AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa challenging her conviction and four-year sentence in the disproportionate assets case.

The apex court which reserved its judgement noted that the appointment of the SPP prima facie appears to suffer from irregularities but it will not allow the de novo hearing before the high court.

"We do not want to delay this matter any further. The appointment of SPP prima facie appears to be irregular and bad in law. But this doesn't warrant fresh hearing. We are not going to allow de novo hearing," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, R K Agrawal and Prafulla C Pant said.

The bench also allowed DMK leader K Anbazhagan, who had filed a petition seeking removal of Bhawani Singh as SPP in the case, to file his written submission before the high court which will be considered by it before passing its judgement on the appeal by Jayalalithaa and others.

The fresh hearing by the larger bench was completed in a little less than two days.

The matter was referred to the larger bench on April 15 when a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and R Banumathi had delivered a split verdict.

Jayalalithaa, her close aide Sasikala and two of her relatives were sentenced to four years of jail term for accumulating wealth disproportionate to known sources of income in an 18-year-old corruption case.