AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala's was convicted by top court in February this year.
A day before the Supreme Court takes up AIADMK leader VK Sasikala petition against her conviction, the Tamil Nadu politician sentenced to four years in jail has asked that the top court's Justice Rohinton Nariman should not hear her case.
Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who is appearing for Sasikala told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that Justice Rohinton Nariman should recuse from the case since his father, noted jurist Fali S Nariman had appeared for Jayalalithaa in the corruption case back in 2014.
If Justice Nariman hears the review petition, it may give a wrong impression, said Mr Rohatgi, who had quit as the government's top law officer in June.
AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala's was convicted by top court in February this year, nixing her chances of becoming the Tamil Nadu chief minister. As party chief, she continues to attempt running Tamil Nadu's ruling party from inside jail through her nephew TTV Dinakaran who she had installed as her deputy in the party. But their hold over the party has weakened considerably in recent months.
Sasikala, 61, had filed the review petition in May when her nephew TTV Dinakaran was also in jail for attempting to bribe Election Commission officials.
The practice in the Supreme Court is that a review petition is heard by the judges who decided the case, and in the chambers of the judges, not in the open court.
Since one of the two judges who had delivered the 14 February verdict convicting Sasikala and her two relatives had retired in May-end, Justice Rohinton Nariman was to hear the review petition along with Justice Amitava Roy on Wednesday.
Mr Rohatgi on Tuesday told Justice Amitava Roy to convey the request to Justice Rohinton Nariman since he was busy in another case. Justice Nariman is also a member of the nine-judge constitution bench holding hearings to decide if right to privacy is a fundamental right.
Justice Roy said he would convey it to Justice Rohinton Nariman.
In her review petition, Sasikala, Jayalalithaa's long-time live-in aide, had argued that the prevention of corruption law did not apply to her since proceedings against Jayalalithaa had ended due to her death. And hence, irrespective of the court's findings against her, she should be set free to head back home.
It is a point that Sasikala's lawyers had made during the court proceedings before the Supreme Court before the court sent her to jail. But the top court had rejected this view when Sasikala and her two relatives were sentenced to undergo four-year imprisonment in the Rs 66 crore disproportionate case involving former chief minister Jayalalithaa.