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Jayalalitha challenges Madras HC order

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha today filed an appeal in the Madras high court challenging the single judge's order indicting her in the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) disinvestment case.

In her appeal, Jayalalitha said the order was contrary to law and the judge ought to have dismissed the petition filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy on the ground that it could not be termed as a public interest litigation.

The judge had also erred in going into the wisdom of the then All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in renouncing TIDCO's rights issue, especially when the present government headed by Karunanidhi had not questioned it.

She submitted that no irregularity had taken place in the disinvestment.

The appeal is likely to come up for hearing on Friday before the first bench comprising Chief Justice M S Liberhan and Justice D Raju.

Jayalalitha has engaged senior supreme court lawyer Rajeev Dhawan to argue her case.

The single judge, Justice Y Venkatachalam, while allowing the petition filed by Swamy, held that the disinvestment was made in 1992 only to favour two industrialists, M A Chidambaram and his son A C Muthiah of the Southern Petrochemicals Limited (SPIC).

The judge directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the deal and ordered Jayalalitha and the two industrialists to make good the loss of Rs 282.9 million to the governemnt within six months.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Dr Swamy reiterated his charge that Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was protecting Muthiah in the SPIC disinvestment deal case.

The state government, in its affidavit before the high court, had specifically stated that Muthiah and his father, M A Chidambaram, be allowed to hold shares in SPIC.

Swamy also reiterated his threat to file a public interest litigation against Karunanidhi alleging that the Tamilnadu Electricity Board had awarded a Rs 38 billion coal handling contract to a company owned by Muthiah in violation of the rules.

UNI