New Delhi, October 17
The Supreme Court today ordered the release of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on bail and suspended the four-year jail term handed out to her in a corruption case by a trial court in Bangaluru on September 27.

A three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu passed the order, going by the directive in a Constitution Bench judgment of the apex court in 2001 that convicts in corruption cases should ordinarily be granted bail by suspending their sentence unless there were compelling reasons for denying it. The SC said the trial court would decide the bail conditions.

Arguing for Jayalalithaa, senior advocate Fali Nariman also cited a dozen other SC judgments which were on the lines of the 2001 verdict. Nariman contended that the Karnataka High Court had denied bail to his client on October 7 by wrongly relying on an apex court verdict which was about suspension of conviction in corruption cases. Jayalalithaa had sought suspension of sentence, not conviction, he pointed out.

Initially, the SC Bench, which included Justices Madan Lokur and AK Sikri, was reluctant to grant any relief as Jayalalithaa had delayed the trial proceedings in the 18-year-old case by taking frequent and long adjournments and she might do the same with the appeal in the HC after getting bail.

At this, Nariman assured the SC that his client would not seek any adjournment whatsoever in the HC. He also suggested that the SC should request the HC to dispose of the appeal expeditiously, possibly within three months, to prevent misuse of the bail.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, on whose complaint AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa had to face the trial, objected to her bail plea as her party workers had created a mayhem following HC’s refusal to suspend her sentence. They had attacked his house in Chennai and threatened to kill him whenever he returned to the city.

At this, the Bench said it would not tolerate any such conduct in future and slated the next hearing for December 18 for a review of the developments, including the pace with which Jayalalithaa was pursuing the appeal in the HC.

The 66-year-old former Chief Minister has been convicted for possession of assets worth about Rs 54 crore, which was disproportionate to her declared income. The trial court also slapped a fine of Rs 100 crore on her, going by the present market value of her assets.