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The war for Jaya

The gazette notification transferring all corruption cases against former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha and others from three special judges to four other courts marks the climax of a two-month-old feud between Tamil Nadu and the Centre.

It started when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government submitted before the Supreme Court that it alone had powers under section 4(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act to transfer corruption cases from one court to another.

The Centre's affidavit came in December, in response to Jayalalitha's appeal challenging a Madras high court order, which upheld the appointment of the three special judges to try cases against her.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, for his part, saw this as an attempt to bail her and the others out. This resulted in a war of attrition between Union Law Minister M Thambidurai and his counterpart in Tamil Nadu, Aladi Aruna, with the former threatening to invoke Article 365.

While the matter was in the apex court, the issue took a new turn with a deputy secretary from the department of personnel and training arriving in Madras on January 29 to collect details about the cases pending before the three judges. This was a follow-up to the Centre's letter to the state government on January 20.

Apparently irked by the bureaucrat's visit, Karunanidhi then alleged the Centre, instead of paying attention to solving several pressing problem facing the nation, was intent on bending the law to enable Jayalalitha and her coterie to escape.

He also ridiculed the Vajpayee government for indulging in such acts while maintaining in public that it would root out corruption, particularly in higher places

Referring to the deputy secretary's visit and the Union law ministry's pressure over telephone, Karunanidhi, in a strongly worded statement on January 30, alleged that these amounted to interference with the administration of justice, especially when Jayalalitha's case was coming up before the apex court on February 15.

Initially, Aruna had warned Thambidurai that the state would file a contempt of court case against him if he did not desist from raking up the issue. In turn, Thambidurai threatened to invoke Article 365 if the state government did not part with details of the communication it had with the Madras high court registrar on the appointment of special judges and information relating to the corruption cases.

UNI

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