New Delhi: The Congress-led Karnataka government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against the acquittal of Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case by the Karnataka high court.

The government also sought a stay of the high court ruling from May, saying that not doing so would be a “travesty of justice", according to the lawyer for the state government Joseph Aristotle.

In the process, the Karnataka government, which has preferred to tread the high moral ground by appealing the verdict, may have triggered a chain of events that could have political repercussions at the national level too.

Not only does it revive uncertainty in Tamil Nadu politics, the move by the Karnataka government can drive a wedge between the Congress and the Jayalalithaa-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). An alienated AIADMK, a powerful regional party with 37 members in the Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha, would be less inclined to go along with the Congress in cornering the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

“We are following a due process of law. Politically too, the AIADMK is closer to the NDA, so either ways, we do not expect much support from them. This is more like taking a stand against corruption rather than looking into the political risks that it may carry," a senior Congress leader said, requesting anonymity.

Jayalalithaa’s lawyer B. Kumar said he was not in a position to comment as he had not seen the appeal papers filed before the Supreme Court.

Senior NDA leaders argue that the decision of the Karnataka government to appeal against the acquittal minimizes the chances of an understanding being reached between Congress and AIADMK. “If Jayalalithaa becomes strong, the Congress and DMK will automatically become weak. This situation will help the BJP in Tamil Nadu," said a senior BJP leader from Karnataka.

The 11 May Karnataka high court verdict, passed by justice C.R. Kumaraswamy, let off the AIADMK leader on the grounds that the disproportionate assets held by her were less than 10% of her income, which was permissible.

“The appeal has been filed and will go the Supreme Court after it reopens on 1 July. To move the holiday bench, one needs to file a special affidavit explaining the urgency of the matter. There is no such urgency here," said special prosecutor B.V. Acharya.

The petition, a copy of which Mint has reviewed, alleges that the high court judge set aside Jayalalithaa’s conviction by “ignoring the material and clinching evidence" that the prosecution had furnished. It says the court’s finding that disproportionate assets were less than 10% was flawed and “not logical".

The petition claims that the high court has enhanced Jayalalithaa’s income to ₹ 34.76 crore compared with ₹ 9.34 crore. It questions the verdict on the valuations assigned to constructions, wedding arrangements, including loans and gifts, under the category of income.

Showing an apparent totalling error under the loans category, the petition says that “If the totalling calculation (in considering the loans as income) alone is corrected...the disproportionate assets come to ₹ 16.32 crore", which is 76.7% and not 8.12% of her income. Increasing the income results in the disproportionate assets forming a smaller percentage of the income.

The petition says that the amount of disproportionate assets, in total, comes to a 34.50% if the calculations are corrected. The voluminous appeal runs into 2,400 pages.

“The Karnataka government appeal is not unexpected. The Supreme Court may issue a stay order reversing the high court judgement but that is a rare phenomenon. We will have to wait and watch—it depends completely on the SC," said political analyst Sathyamurthy.

A special court in Bengaluru had on 27 September convicted Jayalalithaa and three of her aides—N. Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Elavarasi—for amassing wealth disproportionate to their assets when Jayalalithaa was chief minister of Tamil Nadu between 1991 and 1996. The conviction meant she had to step down, but after her acquittal by the high court, she again took over as chief minister on 23 May.

A second political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy said: “The Karnataka government decided to make the decision based on the public mood and so they did. What will happen at the Supreme Court level, is completely up to the individual judge there."

According to Duraisamy, the AIADMK’s prospects at the upcoming by-polls in R.K. Nagar constituency, being contested by Jayalalithaa in order to re-enter the state legislature, will not be affected by Tuesday’s development. “The AIDMK will do every possible thing to channelize their voters—I’m sure they will sweep the polls by a huge margin."

Former member of the legislative assembly and AIADMK party member P. Vetrivel said, “The case was a vindictive one and completely politically motivated. There was no truth in it at all, and the high court proved that our leader was innocent. Let them go to the Supreme Court, if they want—Amma will face it."

Meanwhile, C.M. Dhananjaya who, as the chair of legal cell of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, advised the government to not file the appeal, made a U-turn, saying the government is only discharging its duty by filing the appeal.

“My suggestion to not appeal was on behalf of the party. But taking into account three other important voices, of the special public prosecutor, the advocate general and the law department, my voice has been overruled. I think the people will understand it’s a legal decision and not politically motivated," he said.

Law minister T.B. Jayachandra was not available to comment. Other Congress leaders, explaining the logic of the state’s decision to challenge the acquittal, said that they don’t believe the issue will have a bearing on state politics. “None of the southern states have any bearing on each other’s elections, unlike in central India," said a senior Congress leader, requesting not to be named.

“The appeal could become an issue in national politics, but then again we filed the appeal after getting the nod of the high command," he said.

Nidheesh M.K. in Bengaluru, and Anuja and Gyan Varma in New Delhi contributed to this story.

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