The Supreme Court today chided Karnataka for allowing a special public prosecutor, appointed to conduct trial in the assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, to represent it also in the High Court during appeal proceedings.
"Once the trial is over, (Bhawani) Singh (special public prosecutor) has no authority to appear in the appeal proceeding before High Court," the counsel for Karnataka government told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and R Banumathi.
To this, the bench said "why didn't you prevent him from appearing? ...Even after that, you did nothing. It is one thing to say in words and another thing to do in deeds. You have only said it in words."
The bench was hearing a plea of DMK leader K Anbazhagan seeking removal of Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Bhawani Singh, raising questions about his impartiality as prosecutor in the case. Anbazhagan has also sought a stay of appeal proceedings before the High Court in the case.
It questioned the stand of Karnataka government that despite the fact that it had not authorised the SPP to appear in High Court in the case, it took no steps in this regard.
The bench asked why the state government did not appoint another prosecutor for the High Court and termed its non-filing of a response in the apex court as "strange".
The bench said it would decide the question whether in law, an SPP, appointed to conduct trial in a case, could appear at a later stage in appellate courts too.
