The Supreme Court on Monday held that the Tamil Nadu government had no right to appoint advocate Bhawani Singh as the special public prosecutor (SPP) in the hearing of J Jayalalithaa’s disproportionate assets case in the Karnataka High Court.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, however said that although the appointment of the SPP is “bad in law”, it does not warrant a “de novo” (fresh) hearing of appeals by the convicts, including the AIADMK chief.

“Tamil Nadu has no authority to appoint respondent number 4 (Singh) as Special Public Prosecutor,” the bench, also comprising justices RK Agrawal and Prafulla C Pant, said, adding that it does not concur with the findings of Justice Madan B Lokur that a fresh hearing on the appeal must be conducted before the High Court.

The bench also allowed DMK leader K Anbazhagan and Karnataka to file written submissions in the High Court by Tuesday and said the High Court could pronounce the verdict after considering the submissions.

Dealing with the legal provisions on the appointment of the SPP, the bench said Singh’s appointment was only meant for the trial in the lower court.

On April 22, the apex court had reserved its judgment on the issue of the legality of Singh’s appointment as SPP. The court noted that his appointment prima facie appeared to suffer from irregularities but that it would not allow a de novo hearing before the High Court.

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