Supreme Court declines urgent hearing on PIL against Sasikala

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to give an urgent hearing on a PIL seeking to restrain AIADMK leader V K Sasikala from being sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister till it decides the disproportionate assets case against her.

“Sorry. Declined,” a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud said when the lawyer sought urgent listing and hearing.

Advocate G S Mani, who is representing Chennai-resident Senthil Kumar, general secretary of NGO Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, pleaded that the matter be heard on urgent basis.

The PIL was filed on February 6 seeking a stay on the swearing-in of Sasikala as Tamil Nadu chief minister as there was speculation that she would be taking the oath the next day.

The petitioner has sought a restrain on her swearing-in after an apex court bench had on February 6 said it would pronounce within a week the judgement in a 19-year-old disproportionate assets case in which Sasikala and late chief minister J Jayalalithaa were accused.

Kumar has sought a stay on Sasikala’s swearing-in contending that if she was convicted and forced to resign, there could be a “possibility of riots erupting all over Tamil Nadu”. The petitioner has said he filed the plea in the interest of the people of the state.