The Karnataka government on Tuesday questioned the Supreme Court’s decision to abate – or suspend – the charges against former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case after she died in December 2016. The state said the decision was unlawful and that she stands convicted despite her death since the final arguments in the case had been made in July, months before she died, and the Supreme Court’s judgment had eventually upheld her conviction by a lower court.

The Supreme Court had taken till February to set aside the Karnataka High Court’s ruling acquitting Jayalalithaa and her aide VK Sasikala, restoring the trial court’s conviction. Sasikala had been asked to surrender before a Bengaluru court immediately. However the court had ended proceedings against Jayalalithaa as she had died.

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“The judgment was reserved only for the convenience of the judges,” Karnataka’s Special Public Prosecutor BV Acharya told The Economic Times. He added that while she cannot serve jail time, the Rs 100-crore fine that would have been imposed on her should be sourced from her estate. He added that “it is wrong in law” to abate charges against her just because she died.

The case

Jayalalithaa had been accused of colluding with Sasikala, Sasikala’s sister-in-law Ilavarasi, and their nephew Sudhakaran, when she was the chief minister between 1991 and 1996. The four had allegedly amassed wealth of around Rs 65 crore, which were disproportionate to their known sources of income. Some of the properties under the scanner in the case include Jayalalithaa’s Kodanad estate and her Poes Garden residence.

The complaint was first filed by Subramanian Swamy in 1996. Later, K Anbazhagan, who was then the general secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, became party to the case. However, in 2001, the case was transferred to Bangalore after the Opposition party had alleged interference from the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

A trial court in Karnataka had found them guilty in 2014 and ordered that the accused be jailed for four years and slapped with a fine of Rs 100 crore to be recovered through the seizure of properties. However, the Karnataka High Court in 2015 acquitted all four, arguing that the disproportionate assets amounted to less than 10% of the total income during 1991 and 1996..