The Supreme Court on Wednesday posted AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa's pending appeal challenging the grant of sanction by governor for her prosecution in the coal import and Tansi land cases for final hearing next month.
A five-judge constitution bench, headed by chief justice S P Bharucha said that the matter would be listed for final hearing in January when Jayalalithaa's counsel K K Venugopal said that the matter needs to be heard by the court even after acquittal of the AIADMK supremo in the Tansi land case.
Venugopal made the submission after the bench, having justice S S M Quadri, justice U C Banerjee, justice S N Vriava and justice Shiveraj V Patil as other judges, asked him whether the appeal would survive even after the acquittal of Jayalalithaa by the Madras High Court in the Tansi case.
Venugopal said that the court has to decide once for all whether the governor has discretionary power to grant sanction for prosecution of public servants without the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.
“The other important question of law involved in the Special Leave Petition (SLP) by Jayalalithaa is whether the governor can grant sanction for prosecution of a chief minister on a recommendation by the Council of Minister minus the chief minister,” he said.

Bureau Report