SC judge offers to recuse from Jayalalithaa case

NEW DELHI: Justice Vikramjit Sen, heading the Supreme Court's lone vacation bench, on Monday offered to recuse from hearing Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's appeal questioning the procedure adopted by a Karnataka trial court in a disproportionate case against her.
The apex court had ordered transfer of the trial from Chennai to Bangalore. Later, following a controversy over appointment of public prosecutor, it had asked the then Karnataka High Court chief justice to appoint the PP.Justice Sen was the then Karnataka HC chief justice.
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Justice Sen asked Jayalalithaa's counsel Shekhar Naphade whether he had any reservation against his hearing the petition. He said, "At the material time I was the chief justice (of the HC), I had appointed the public prosecutor. If you have any reservation, I will recuse."
But Naphade said he had none and the bench of Justices Sen and S K Singh posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday. Jayalalithaa had moved the apex court seeking stay of trial in the DA case against her, pending determination of applications by a dozen people and companies claiming ownership over several properties which were listed against her as disproportionate assets by the vigilance department.
She had said five of the claimants were already heard and it was just a matter of time for the other seven to produce evidence before the trial court about ownership of the assets. Only after that the trial court could be in a position to determine whether the assets were actually owned by her or if it was a politically motivated case to frame her through the vigilance department, she had said.
Meanwhile, convicted in Uphaar fire tragedy case and awaiting the quantum of sentence, Gopal Ansal's counsel Nidesh Gupta mentioned an application seeking permission for his client to go abroad to hold talks for expanding Ansal's real estate business in the US.
The earlier vacation bench of Justices J S Khehar and C Nagappan had last week refused to list Ansal's application saying he could hold talks in Delhi with his prospective business partners. However, it had relented and allowed the counsel to mention the matter before the next vacation bench.
Before recusing from the hearing, Justice Sen said the matter would be listed before another bench during the vacation.