Prosecution views a must before bail nod, says SC Bar Association president Dushyant Dave

NEW DELHI: Newly elected Supreme Court Bar Association president Dushyant Dave said the Supreme Court should have taken the views of the prosecution into account before granting bail to former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

“The court should have issued notices to the prosecution and heard it before granting bail in this case,” Dave said.

Court rules mandate that the prosecution be put on notice so that it can formally oppose or agree to bail being granted, he said. The court granted bail without consulting the prosecution and later extended bail by four months, he said. Both decisions were taken ex-parte, Dave told ET.

As head of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Dave said he would focus on seeking changes in the manner in which the top court functions. The prosecution has to be consulted before any bail application is taken up, he said. He also objected to the manner in which the case was mentioned in the top court and listed with alacrity.

“The grant of bail to certain powerful politicians and rich people is a matter of grave concern. I have nothing to say on the merits of the case but the manner in which it was done. The haste with which justice is dispensed to the powerful but is denied to the thousands of others with the same alacrity send wrong signals to the nation,” he said.

should have remembered that it had ordered trial in the case 18 years ago and it was delayed on one pretext or the other. There was clear obstruction of justice — the special public prosecutor, a lawyer of great eminence and integrity, was attacked. Justice was further skewed when lakhs of (Jayalalithaa) supporters tried to exert pressure on the trial court and the high court,” he said.

Jayalalithaa and her close aide Sasikala were convicted in a disproportionate assets case by a trial court in Karnataka after a delay of more than eighteen years, mostly blamed on the defence team’s stalling tactics.

She was sentenced to four years in jail, forcing her to step down as chief minister. She was jailed on September 27, following the conviction. She has since filed an appeal, which if not decided on time, may prevent her from contesting the 2016 assembly elections.

Under election laws, she also stands to be disqualified from contesting any elections for a 10-year period, which may spell an end to her political career.