STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. J JAYLALITHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms. J. Jayalalitha was arraigned before the court of a Special Judge, Chennai, along with 10 others, depicting her as the hub of a cabal for knocking off a huge sum of public money to make vast pecuniary gains at the cost of the State exchequer. The Special Judge at the stage of framing charge felt that the materials shown to him were insufficient to frame a charge against her and also against one of her former cabinet colleagues (V.R. Nedunchezhian). So they were discharged by the Special Judge, but a charge has been framed against the other nine accused for criminal conspiracy to misappropriate Government funds and other related offences. The State of Tamil Nadu challenged the aforesaid order of discharge before the High Court of Madras in revision, but a learned single Judge did not interfere with the order. In the meanwhile V.R. Neduchezhian has passed away. This appeal is by the State as against Ms. Jayalalitha (respondent herein) in challenge of the said order of the High Court.

(3.) The substance of the police case is that during the period between February 1992 and October 1993, all the above 11 accused and certain foreign coal suppliers had entered into a criminal conspiracy to import coal for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (hereinafter referred to as the 'Electricity Board') for such price as to obtain huge pecuniary advantage to themselves by causing heavy and wrongful loss to the State to the tune of about 6.5 crores of rupees.