The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed as not maintainable a PIL challenging the transfer of disproportionate wealth case against Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to Karnataka and slapped a cost of Rs 10,000 on the petitioner, a senior lawyer, deprecating that endeavours only to gain publicity should be nipped in the bud.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam, said the petitioner (P R Krishnan), being a senior advocate, ought to have great responsibility rather than filing this “misconceived” writ petition.
“We are unequivocally of the view that there are endeavours only to gain publicity, which is considered to be strongly deprecated and thus such a proceeding is complete waste of judicial time and must be nipped in the bud,” the bench said rejecting the PIL at the initial stage itself.
The petitioner contended that the transfer of the trial from Tamil Nadu to Karnataka carried out under the order of the Supreme Court was not in accordance with law.
He alleged the trial Judge (who convicted her) was not fair and the detention of Jayalalithaa in Karnataka jail was illegal. He further claimed there was “collective displeasure and inexplicable uneasiness in the minds of neutral persons but no one come forward to question the legality, correctness, principals of these illegal acts even when the state of Karnataka was in the process of preferring an appeal (against the Karnataka High Court order acquitting Jayalalithaa).”