Congress not in favour of appealing against Jayalalithaa

Bengaluru: Karnataka's ruling Congress on Friday advised its government not to appeal against the state high court verdict, acquitting AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa in a corruption case.

"The role of Karnataka is administrative and not judicial. Our state is not a party in any way of the proceeding trial before the special judge or in appeal," party state unit's legal and human rights cell department chairman C.M. Dhananjaya told IANS.

The legal opinion came ahead of 67-year-old Jayalalithaa's swearing-in as the Tamil Nadu chief minister for a record fifth time on Saturday in Chennai following her unanimous election as the AIADMK's legislative party leader earlier in the day.

The high court's Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy upheld the former Tamil Nadu chief minister's appeal, quashing all charges against her and setting aside her conviction and four-year sentence given by a trial court here on September 27, 2014, in the 18-year-old disproportionate assets case.

"Our state has not participated in the judicial function. It only carried the Supreme Court orders ever since the graft case was transferred to Bengaluru in November 2002 on the ground that a fair trial was not going in a Chennai court," Dhananjaya said.

"As Karnataka is not the aggrieved party, the state government had earlier filed an affidavit in the apex court stating that it was not interested in the outcome of the trial. Filing an appeal by the state amounts to showing interest in the outcome of the case," he added.

The state cabinet, which was to discuss on Thursday the recommendation of special public prosecutor B.V. Acharya, who favoured appealing against the verdict in the top court, did not meet as the state law department was yet to study the report of Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar on the verdict.

Acharya, a former state advocate general, claimed that there were glaring arithmetical errors in the high court judgement.