In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court of India stayed the order of the High Court of Madras to verify former Tamil Nadu chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa’s left-hand-thumb impression (LTI) on by-poll nominations with the prison records at the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore.

AIADMk’s Bose won the Tirupparankundram by-polls held in the later part of 2016. DMK’s losing candidate Dr. Saravanan had moved the High Court of Madras to declare Bose’s election as ‘null and void’ as the LTI affixed on the nomination form of Bose by the then AIADMK general secretary and chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa couldn’t have been affixed by her in view of her health condition at the Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.

Saravanan requested the High Court to verify first whether the LTI was Jayalalithaa’s and if so, whether she did it consciously, whether it was affixed in the presence of doctor(s) treating her or was it taken by force by those close to her. Taking up his petition, the High Court ordered that the LTI be compared with the Parappana Agrahara prison records in Bangalore where Jayalalithaa had spent 21 days.

Bose moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the order of the High Court of Madras. The apex Court took up his petition and ordered stay on the trial in the High Court of Chennai on Saravanan’s petition. When the case came up for hearing yesterday, the apex Court quashed the High Court of Chennai’s order to verify Jayalalithaa’s LTI with the prison records in Bangalore.